The Enlivening Object

Abstract

A psychoanalyst may function as an enlivening object, to awaken the growth of relatedness in patients whose curtailed object relations confine them to primitive forms of engagement. The model is informed by the insights of the child psychoanalytic psychotherapist Anne Alvarez in her treatment of disturbed youth. The idea of the analyst in an enlivening role is viewed within a contemporary context of expanded perspectives on the analyst's role and evolving notions of therapeutic action.

Keywords:

• primitive states
• unrelatedness
• schizoid
• aliveness
• object relations
• analytic role
• therapeutic action
• psychotherapy
• psychoanalysis

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lisa Director

Lisa Director, Ph.D. is Faculty, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis; Faculty, Stephen A. Mitchell Center for Relational Studies; and Faculty and Supervisor, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center.