A psychoanalytic concept illustrated: will, must, may, can—revisiting the survival function of primitive omnipotence

Abstract

The author explores the linear thread connecting the theory of Freud and Klein, in terms of the central significance of the duality of the life and death instinct and the capacity of the ego to tolerate contact with internal and external reality. Theoretical questions raised by later authors, informed by clinical work with children who have suffered deprivation and trauma in infancy, are then considered. Theoretical ideas are illustrated with reference to observational material of a little boy who suffered deprivation and trauma in infancy. He was first observed in the middle of his first year of life while he was living in foster care, and then later at the age of two years and three months, when he had been living with his adoptive parents for more than a year.

Keywords:

• Infant Observation
• splitting
• good object
• bad object
• idealization
• primitive omnipotence
• manic defence
• deprivation
• neglect

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Lynne Amidon, Dr. Mike Shaw and the team at the Monroe Family Assessment Service; also Jenifer Wakelyn for encouragement to write this paper, and Margaret Rustin, for helpful comments on an earlier draft. I am grateful for the inspirational teaching that first captivated me, and for this I would like to thank William Halton, Judith Edwards and Maggie Cohen.