Ordinary People and Extra-Ordinary Protections: A Post-Kleinian Approach to the Treatment of Primitive Mental States. The New Library of Psychoanalysis 40

Many people come to analysis appearing quite 'ordinary' on the surface. However, once below that surface, we often come into contact with something quite unexpected: 'extra-ordinary protections' created to keep at bay any awareness of deeply traumatic happenings occurring at some point in life. Judith Mitrani investigates the development and the function of these protections, allowing the reader to witness the evolution of the process of transformation, wherein defensiveness steadily mutates into communication. She lucidly and artfully weaves detailed clinical with a variety of analytic concepts, and her original notions - including 'unmentalized experience' and its expression in enactments; 'adhesive pseudo-object relations' and the way in which this contracts and compares with normal and narcissistic object relations - provide valuable tools for understanding the infantile transference/countertransference and for the refinement of our technique with primitive mental states. Ordinary People and Extra-Ordinary Protections will prove stimulating and accessible in its style and substance to a broad analytic readership, from the serious student of psychoanalysis to the most seasoned professional. Many people come to analysis appearing quite ordinary on the surface. However, once below that surface, there often appear extraordinary protections created to keep at bay any awareness of deeply traumatic happenings occurring at some point in life. This book investigates the development and function of these protections, allowing the reader to witness the evolution of the process of transformation wherein defensiveness steadily mutates into communication. Clinical observations are detailed with a variety of analytic concepts, and original notions provide valuable tools for understanding the infantile transference/countertransference for the refinement of current techniques with primitive mental states. The following chapters are included: (1) "Transference Interpretation and the Emergence of Infantile Dependency in Ordinary People"; (2) "Extra-Ordinary Protections: The Evolution of the Theory of Adhesive Identification"; (3) "Ordinary People and Extra-Ordinary Protections"; (4) "The 'Flying Dutchman' and the Search for a Containing Object"; (5) "Chloe: From Pre-Conception to After Birth"; (6) "Unbearable Ecstasy, Reverence and Awe, and the Perpetuation of an 'Aesthetic Conflict'"; (7) "Never Before and Never Again" (8) "Changes of Mind: On Thinking Things Through in the Countertransference"; (9) "Concluding Thoughts." (Contains 188 references.) (ADT) Foreword / James S. Grotstein -- Transference Interpretation And The Emergence Of Infantile Dependency In Ordinary People -- Extra-ordinary Protections: The Evolution Of The Theory Of Adhesive Identification -- Ordinary People And Extra-ordinary Protections -- The Flying Dutchman And The Search For A Containing Object -- Chloe: From Pre-conception To After Birth -- Unbearable Ecstasy, Reverence And Awe, And The Perpetuation Of An Aesthetic Conflict -- Never Before And Never Again -- Changes Of Mind: On Thinking Things Through In The Countertransference. Judith L. Mitrani. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 170-177) And Index. Investigated how people who come to analysis appear quite 'ordinary' on the surface, but how below that surface there is something quite unexpected: 'extra-ordinary protections' created to keep at bay any awareness of traumatic events. This chapter will focus on beginnings: the beginning of analytic thinking about the transference; the beginning of an analytic treatment; and the beginning of the individual as it is expressed in the transference in the first session.