The Hypothesis of Psychic Antibodies

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the author’s clinical work with a young boy between the ages of four and eleven. The author postulates that there are, in addition to “defenses of the self” that develop in a pathological, indeed, toxic way to isolate the child by alienating others and making the child emotionally sick, healthier defenses of the self, which are described as image-producing antibodies that work to undo the toxic effects of morbid defenses. These healthy defenses of the developing self are called psychic antibodies. The author presents his hypothesis of the psychic immune system and its functioning based on his work with “Willy,” using, as further empirical evidence, a brief history of Willy’s birth, infancy, and early childhood, four sandplays, and seven dreams.

KEY WORDS:

• affect toxins
• bewitchment
• complexes
• inoculation
• integrity
• liquidation
• psychic antibodies
• psychic immune system
• transmutation
• trauma-defenses
• healing

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank San Francisco Jungian analyst John Beebe for his editorial assistance on an early draft of this paper in 2008, Jungian analyst John Gosling for his final suggestions for revisions and edits of the entire document, and Jungian analyst Lori Goldrich for her careful and close reading of the several versions this paper went through.

NOTE

References to The Collected Works of C. G. Jung are cited in the text as CW, volume number, and paragraph number. The Collected Works are published in English by Routledge (UK) and Princeton University Press (USA).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Steven Herrmann

STEVEN HERRMANN, PhD, MFT, is a certified Jungian analyst and analyst member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. He is the author of many papers and four books, including Spiritual Democracy (North Atlantic Books, 2014) and Emily Dickinson: A Medicine Woman for Our Times (Fisher King Press, 2018). William James and C. G. Jung: Doorways to the Self is forthcoming from Analytical Psychology Press this fall. He has a private practice office in Montclair, Oakland, California. Correspondence: [email protected].