Disruption-Restoration Forum

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Ernest Wolf writes:

The time may be right for a discussion of the most useful conceptualization of the dynamics of strengthening the self in the course of the therapeutic process. As is well known Kohut proposed a conceptualization based on optimal frustration in association with transmuting internalization. I have always found this conceptualization somewhat awkward. It leans heavily on Freud's model for mourning where the lost object is brought into conscious contemplation and then internalized as an accretion to the ego. I have suggested an alternate dynamic in elaborating on the disruption-restoration sequence. The disruption precipitates a disorganization-regression that tears the self apart into its constituents. (Disrupted individuals often talk about having fallen apart). Metaphorically one can visualize the disrupted fragmented self in a dynamic state where the previously cohesive constituents are now relatively freely movable. (I know we are not talking about real structures but about experiences that are lasting long enough to be referred to as "psychic structures") When the self first became cohesive it configured itself in adaptation to the prevailing childhood environment and its' selfobjects. The same can now happen with the constituents of the disrupted self. It can re-arrange itself into a new cohesive configuration in adaptation to the treatment situation and the selfobject-analyst. Hopefully this readapted self will also be more fitting into the extra-analytic environment which is equivalent to saying the self has been strengthened by re-arrangement of its constituent selfobject experiences. Any comments or discussion?

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