Pioneers in Object Relations Clinical Thinking:
James F. Masterson (1926 -2010)
“When this man turned to his colleagues and family for sympathy, he was shocked to hear them say that they
agreed with his boss. ... Even when he started therapy, he still didn't understand the problem, because he
believed that all of these people were wrong about him. ... (For such narcissists,) other people exist only the
way a hamburger exists for them - to make them feel good. ...They may charm you and manipulate you to
make you see how wonderful they are, but as soon as they get your admiration, they'll drop you.”“Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is due to a developmental arrest of the self and the ego in the pre-oedipal
stage approximately between the ages of two to three. I have called the key psychodynamic theme that
results, The Disorders of the Self Triad: Self-activation leads to separation anxiety and abandonment depression
which leads to self-destructive defenses. This dynamic is precipitated by real later life situations that require
self-assertion and autonomous functioning or by events that involve separation."These events interrupt the defenses; the patient begins to experience the abandonment depression and then
defends by giving up self-assertion and activating self-destructive defenses whose symptoms can vary from
obesity to anorexia, from clinging to others to distancing from others, from sexual promiscuity to the avoidance
of sex, from alcoholism to drug addiction.”“At the beginning of therapy, the patient will resist allying his emotions with the therapist because it means
giving up his usual method of avoiding painful feelings of separation anxiety and abandonment depression. At
this point he is inclined to rely upon the familiar strategy, which he thinks works, rather than one still unknown
and untested. But the more he invests in the therapist, the more he will give up these old defenses and turn to
therapy to work through these feelings of abandonment."First, however, he must "test" the therapist with his habitual self-destructive strategies to answer two vital
questions: Is the therapist competent? Can he trust her? Thus the first phase of therapy is the testing phase.""It is necessary for the therapist to patiently and consistently confront the patient with the genuine destructiveness
of his behavior and of his distorted perception that a real therapeutic alliance or involvement in therapy is equivalent
to the painful state of being engulfed or abandoned, which up until now has been the patient’s experience when
activating the real self. At the same time, the therapist must demonstrate, by actual dealings with the patient,
the necessity and value of trusting the therapeutic relationship.""A host of therapeutic values and actions contribute to achieving this objective: The therapist’s thoughtful concern
for the patient’s welfare, the accuracy of the confrontations, the therapist’s reliability, and the refusal to exploit
the patient or to permit the patient to manipulate. Only when the therapeutic alliance is established will the patient
be willing to give up his lifelong dependence on the false self’s ploys for emotional security. This is a momentous
turning point in the therapy for the person with BPD, as it means the transference acting out is being converted
into a therapeutic alliance and transference, and that the patient is passing into the second or “working through”
phase of therapy, where it now becomes possible to work through, attenuate, and overcome the depression.”“In a sense, borderline-personality problems can teach all of us about the crucial balance between independence
and the need to share our lives with others. Connections - in family, friendships, love and work - are healthy, but
building a separate sense of self is critical. While life may involve compromise and some working toward others’
goals, it also requires forging one’s own individual and unique identity.”
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Intro to the Object Relations Thinking and
Clinical Technique
- with Dr. Kavaler-Adler (part 1).
Projective Identification:
Object Relations View (part 2 of the mini-video series)
Time as an Object - Object Relations view (part 3
of mini-video series)
Self Sabotage - Object Relations view
(part 4 of mini-video series)
Fear of Success - Object
Relations View (part 5 of mini-video series) - NEW!
Mourning, Developmental
vs. Pathological (part 6 of mini-video series) - NEW
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Please note - NEW
- Mail correspondence to: ORI
Administrator, 75-15 187 Street, Fresh Meadows, NY, 11366-1725
New: Tel: 646.522.0387 Fax:
718.785.3270 Email:
admin@ORINYC.org
Inquiries about psychotherapy
and psychoanalysis training:
DrKavalerAdler@gmail.com
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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