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The unwelcome child and a lack of acceptance of new ideas

The unwelcome child and a lack of acceptance of new ideas Ferenczi’s idea of the unwelcome child and his death instinct is used as a background for discussing the treatment of adult patients who do not expect to be received and understood and who turn their aggression back upon themselves, destroying their will to live. When these patients enter analysis, they are very difficult to reach because they have internalized an obstructive object (Bion, 1958). Further, I have linked the unwelcoming of a child to the hatred of the new idea. The paper highlights the deadening defenses that arise in response to awareness of premature separateness between mother and baby, inevitably experienced by an unwelcome child. Coming alive involves suffering the pain of the original loss. To avoid this pain, patients reject anything new, and become stuck in monotonous, seemingly lifeless, patterns where new ideas and new ways of being threaten the static order. This includes the threat that relationship with the analyst brings. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The American Journal of Psychoanalysis Springer Journals

The unwelcome child and a lack of acceptance of new ideas

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References (46)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis 2022
ISSN
0002-9548
eISSN
1573-6741
DOI
10.1057/s11231-022-09355-w
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Ferenczi’s idea of the unwelcome child and his death instinct is used as a background for discussing the treatment of adult patients who do not expect to be received and understood and who turn their aggression back upon themselves, destroying their will to live. When these patients enter analysis, they are very difficult to reach because they have internalized an obstructive object (Bion, 1958). Further, I have linked the unwelcoming of a child to the hatred of the new idea. The paper highlights the deadening defenses that arise in response to awareness of premature separateness between mother and baby, inevitably experienced by an unwelcome child. Coming alive involves suffering the pain of the original loss. To avoid this pain, patients reject anything new, and become stuck in monotonous, seemingly lifeless, patterns where new ideas and new ways of being threaten the static order. This includes the threat that relationship with the analyst brings.

Journal

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis – Springer Journals

Published: Jun 1, 2022

Keywords: unrepresented states; death instinct; obstructive object; mimicry; new idea

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