Psychodynamic Thought
In Relation to Group Theory and Practice
 Today’s Agenda
 Psychodynamic Lecture Part A / B (2hrs hour)
Solowoniuk, 2007
1
Setting the Context
Why do we need to understand
psychodynamic theory with
respect to conducting group
therapy…
For better of for worse psychodynamic theory is the most influential and comprehensive theory of
human psychological development and functioning to date. – Flores (1997).
Solowoniuk, 2007
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A prelude: Psychodynamic Theory and Addiction
 Addiction occurs in and amongst psychological development (ego or
self development).
 First and foremost the self or “I” is created through the desire to be
with others as oneself, with all its imperfections and its shortcomings,
while recognizing that others are independent, separate and not just
there to serve one’s own needs and desires….
OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Psychodynamic Theory: A Neo-Freudian
Object Related Theory
 Freud held that behavior is
determined by biological drive
states that are tempered by
social expectation (superego)
and through a evolving rational
self (ego).

However;
 His successors (e.g., Kernberg,
Mahler, Kohut, and Winnicott’s)
work over 60 years holds that
our sense of self is defined by the
way we are perceived by others
and how we perceive or distort
our perceptions of others.
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Neo-Freudian Philosophical Underpinnings
 Development of “Self” primary
goal of human being.
 Thus, we become what we are in
order to be able to develop
authentic real relationships…
And we remain inauthentic or
false until we are able to engage
another in true dialogue.

The hook or problem is however…
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Developmental Impasses
 We must first be autonomous
and independent before we can
fully engage each other.
 However, if we do not know our
boundaries, we can lose
ourselves in our relationships
and confuse that which is ours
with that which is not ours.
 Hence, “can I be close to
another without losing myself
and can I really tolerate being
alone”?
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Enter Addiction
 This is an important theme in the treatment of
addiction because many persons for whom addiction
is a problem feel at their core that:
A)
B)
C)
D)
They don’t know who they are;
Their history displays a rash of failed relationships or none all;
They present as unworthy, unlovable, and;
They either have rigid boundaries or none not at all
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Enter Addiction (contd).
 Ultimately, a persons’ use
of a drug or a behaviour is
a way t0 combat their
feelings of worthlessness
while also burying a sense
of emptiness that
intermittently permeates
their consciousness.
 And yet through extended
use these phenomena only
become more hauntingly
real; leading to further
escape via a false-self
schema.
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Song Interlude
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Enter Addiction (contd)
 Thus, addiction can represent or take the form of

Yearning for praise and approval or a merger with an idealized
other in order to self-sooth; or it can…

Take the form sexual acting out with persons, figures, or
symbols so as to feel wanted, real, alive, or powerful; or it can
be …

An escape through drugs into a fantasy world to keep the void
and meaningless at bay. Yet whatever the means, according
to…
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Psychodynamic theory…

All these behaviors are a substitute for a self-object which
failed the infant/child when they should still have had the
feeling of omnipotently controlling its responses in accordance
with his or her needs as if it were part of themselves.
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Object Relations Theory
 Mentalistic psychology aimed at understanding how an
individuals’ external functioning is / was a representation
of their internal perceptions
 The term object signifies an individual’s ability to carry
around an accurate mental representation of another
person in his or her mind
 The internal world acts, reacts, and is reactivated with
actual interpersonal relationships
Solowoniuk, 2007
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What does this have to do with
addiction?
 Addiction is about arrested self-development!
Thus…
Before one can understand the implications that
alcohol and drugs use have in relation to an
individual’s developmental fixation, one must
understand the different stages of typical
development.
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Towards An Object-Related Developmental
Understanding of Addiction
 Self-Object: mental representations of others that we experience as
part of ourselves; there are two types.
 Mirroring self-object: is an object that responds to and confirms the child’s
innate sense of vigor, greatness, and perfection.

For example: it is the gleam in the mother/father’s eye that is in tune with the
infant/child’s achievements.
 It is this pole that the child’s basic strivings for power and success
emanate.
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Mirroring Self-Object
 Therefore if the
parents/caregiver/or other
mirror these feelings to the
ICA he or she develops a
healthy sense of self with an
appropriate sense of
assertiveness and ambition.
 Failure of the self-object to
optimally gratify the ICA’s
hungry needs results in an
individual who needs
constant admiration,
confirmation, and recognition
from others because they feel
empty and cannot give this to
themselves.
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Idealizing Self-Object
 Idealizing self-objects are objects
with whom a child can merge as
an image of calmness, infallibility,
and omnipotence.
 If the child is presented with a
strong , soothing self-object who
allows idealization, he or she
develops a capacity for healthy
ideals, values, and principles.
 In contrast, children who do not
have idealizing self-objects
available are forever attempting to
achieve a union with an idealized
object .
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Failure to achieve Union: Addiction in Adulthood
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Margaret Mahler’s Theory of Ego Development
 If one is to truly elucidate how ego
development affects later life toward
understanding addiction as relational
(i.e., cure through ingesting
objects/drugs or others)…
 Which leaves no psychic structure in
place to appease a false-self schema,
we must understand how a viable ego
is formed or deformed.
 Consequently to begin investigating
how an ego or “I” is birthed, we are
brought to the work of Margaret
Mahler and her theory of ego
development.
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Introducing: Margaret Mahler’s Theory of
Ego Development
 After having spent most of her professional career studying severely
disturbed children, Mahler began to investigate the psychological
development of children (o – 3 years ).
 She eventually drew a picture of the psychological birth of the child,
which stressed that the ego purposefully sought relations.
 Whereas Freud, believed the ego’s primary drive was to reduce
biological urges.
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Introducing: Margaret Mahler’s Theory of Ego
Development (contd).
 Essentially, her work revealed the interpersonal relations of the ego and
how these relations determined the building of future intrapsychic
structures and in turn…
 How these structures preserve, modify, and reactive past relations
throughout the lifespan.
 Most importantly, Mahler was able to delineate the birth and evolving
births of important psychic structures from 0 to 3 toward the creation
of a cohesive self/real self/true-self.
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Stage I: Normal Autism
(birth to 4 weeks)
 During the first month of life, the
infant is encapsulated in a psychic
orbit that serves as a stimulus
barrier protecting the child from
excessive outside intrusions.
 It is considered normal because of
its adaptive function, allowing the
child to purposefully use the
mother/father caregiver (MFC) as
an auxiliary ego.
 If however, the environment is
grossly pathological the early
development of ego does not begin
and fusion or less than optimal
differentiation between MFC,
world, and child may result.
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Normal Symbiosis – Attachment
 By the second month of life, the infant becomes aware of
the (MFC) as an external object.
 During these early months the infant internalizes the
(MFC) and uses it as a beacon of orientation, engendering a
basic sense of:
1.
2.
3.
Security
Safety, and;
Trust
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Splitting the Good and the Bad
 The crude differentiation between object and self, good
and bad, and pleasure and pain allows the symbiotic infant
to deal with painful experiences in the only way his/her
limited cognitive defenses permit…
 **By splitting the good and the bad, and projecting the bad outside of the
symbiotic partnership. Eventually this splitting will have to be
reconciled…
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Splitting the Good and the Bad (contd).
 Crucial to this development
phase is the infant’s ability to
attach itself to an eternal object.
However, the failure of the
attachment carries several
deficits in the early
organization of the self.
 However, we must keep in
mind it’s not just the MFC’s
that lead to attachment failure
as both biology, personality,
and environment play a role
here.
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Failure to Attach to External Other
 Failure here may lead to a ego or I that is
 Affectionless
 Withdrawn from interest in the world, self/other (engendering a basic
mistrust) personality, or ; failure may lend its self to the…
 Creation of a False-Self
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False Self / True-Self – Ala’ “Winnicott”
 In the event that the infant/child’s ego or I is threatened, defensive
compensatory structures (false-self) are established to prevent further
injury.
 Such an individual develops an as if personality bolstered by a
pomposity that hides their “true self” from further fragmentation.
 But this defensive process prevents them from further nourishing their
true self because each success is attributed to the way they “acted”
rather than “who they are”.
Solowoniuk, 2007
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False Self / True-Self – Ala’ “Winnicott” (contd)
 Consequently, they feel like “imposters” who sub-consciously
ruminate about being discovered and exposed for what they really are.
 However, the therapist must understand that this false-self creation is a
defense mechanism designed to hide and protect the true-self that lies
within.
 Winnicott holds that false-self is not conceived as malevolent, on the
contrary it is a caretaker self that energetically manages life so that an inner
self might not experience the threat of annihilation resulting from excessive
pressure on it to develop according to the internal logic of an another
person (MFC).
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Winnicott’s False/True-self Primary Tenets
 "With the care that it receives from its mother each infant is able to have a personal
existence, and so begins to build up what might be called a continuity of being. On the basis
of this continuity of being the inherited potential gradually develops into an individual
infant. If maternal care is not good enough then the infant does not really come into
existence, since there is no continuity of being; instead the personality becomes built on the
basis of reactions to environmental impingement.“
 "The first ego organization comes from the experience of threats of annihilation which do
not lead to annihilation and from which, repeatedly, there is recovery."
 "(1) Subject relates to object. (2) Object is in process of being found instead of being placed
by the subject in the world. (3) Subject destroys object. (4) Object survives destruction. (5)
Subject can use object."
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Winncottian Therapy
 For Winnicott, the therapist's
task is to provide a holding
environment for the client so
they have the opportunity to
meet neglected ego needs and
allow their true self to emerge.
One of the most important
attributes of the therapist is
simple patience.
 "If only we can wait, the patient
arrives at understanding
creatively and with immense
joy...The principle is that it is
the patient and only the patient
who has the answers."
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Returning to Mahler/Stage II: Separation
Individuation
 Differentiation and Hatching (5 to 10 months)
 As strong as the childs’ yearnings for attachment are, the infant gradually
begins to experience even more powerful urges to move away from his/her
MFC’s. - Hatching
 Such a phase marks the beginning of the child’s emergence as a separate
individual free from the symbiotic attachment to his/her MFC’s.
 Failure to negotiate this developmental process results in an adult who
becomes disorganized and suffers dissolution of the self when faced with
object loss.
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Failure of Differentiation
 When severe, the individual is unable to discern inner experiences
from outer experiences, leading to confusion regarding what is me and
what is not me.
 In extremer cases, internal stimuli become confused with external
reality, which may be the breeding ground for hallucinations and
delusions.
 These individuals may have an infinity for hallucinogen type drugs or
similar behaviors.
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Practicing
 From approximately 10 – to 15 months, the child’s focus shifts from the
MFC’s to autonomous functioning.
 He/she begin to stand, walk, climb, jump, etc… He or she truly believes
they are the center of the universe (primary narcissism).
 However, if the child is not given boundaries, or if the boundaries are
too rigid or diffuse, or the child’s process of development is impaired by
unavailable, intrusive, or uncaring self-objects…
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Grandiose Self
 A grandiose self may take shape;
especially when these qualities are not
assimilated into the ego or they or not
challenged throughout maturation!!!
 Such a self is often found in
individuals with addictions and
because such a self can be recalled it
will used be used as a defense against
loss of self-esteem and or loss of
control.
 This defensiveness comes out usually
at the beginning of the treatment
process or is revealed when a
significant other tells their partner …
“Go to treatment or where done.”
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Rapprochement (15 to 24 months)
 Toward the end of the toddler’s practicing sub-phase, he/she becomes
increasing aware of his separateness from his/her MFC.
 Thus there will inevitably be moments when the toddler will become
acutely aware of his/her complete vulnerability (falls, bumps, bruises,
child becomes lost in department store, abuse at the hands of another,
etc).
 Hence, he/she will become distressed and these frustrations and other
feelings will become internalized bringing one’s omnipotence into
question….
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Rapprochement
(15 to 24 months)
 Here the developing self begins
to understand (clearly) that
causes and events exist outside
of oneself, independent of his or
her needs and wishes.
 Thus he or she suffers a loss of
omnipotence and wishes to
return to the safety of his/her
MFC.
 This is a period or phase of
contradictions known by the
parent as a terrible two’s.
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The Reemergence of Splitting :
Good vs. Bad
 While the MFC’s will be confused by trying to understand
the child's frustration , the rapprochement phase is critical
to the child’s ability to internalize conflict and to reconcile
clashes between an:

“All Good” MFC and an “All Bad” MFC
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The Reemergence of Splitting :
Good vs. Bad (Contd)
 While in the symbiotic phase the MFC’s were considered “good love
objects” and viewed as part of the self, they now come in conflict with
the child’s new emerging sense of “I”.
 However, our child love objects unavoidably have their dark sides.
Sometimes they are need frustraters , or pain inflictors, or indifferent
distracted caretakers, or are absent altogether.
 For the child’s newly developing ego, the “good MFC’s” and “bad
MFC’s” can not be one and the same love object.
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Splitting the Ego
 For instance, the MFC who was
once so long ago apart of me,
can not be bad; yet,
undeniably, MFC’s are not
always good.
 If the good MFC and the bad
MFC are one person, then I, too
must harbor some bad within
me… That is not possible, for
I’m all good.
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Stage III Object Constancy:
Reconciling the Split Within
 Essentially, object constancy involves the emotional and cognitive
acceptance of the idea that we are neither saints nor demons but whole
people capable of both love and hate.
 Secondly, we also understand and realize that other people are both
capable of love and hate, and being able to unite and integrate such
insights, individuals confirm their sense of personal wholeness.
 This occurs between 24 and 36 months and the degree with negotiate
this stage can impact the use projection and projective identification in
later life.
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Stage III Object Constancy:
Reconciling the Split Within (Contd).
 When object constancy is weak, the only way to protect the good,
cherished parts of the self from the negative or undesirable aspects of
the self is to force or split this off.
 Destructively, it becomes impossible to appreciate the wholeness of
the self or other. Thus, the individual will simply get rid of others like
unwanted objects if those others disappoint them.
 In addition, they will also fail to see the other’s *history of goodness
and will only be able to recall the badness of the latest experience.
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Object Constancy Achieved
 However, when achieved:
 The child can hold onto both positive and negative images of the
MFC’s and function as a separate self, even if angry, frustrated, and
alone(separation and individuation is achieved).
 There is also an enduring developing of the psychic structure;
individuals are able to calm and sooth themselves and will not have
to rely on external self-objects or external sources of gratification
(i.e., alcohol, drugs, sex, food, and gambling, be dependent on
relationships) to ward off painful affective states.
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Addiction and Defensive Posturing
 Even after developing a cohesive self, the fact that a person is addicted
indicates that his or her primary defenses have been weakened on one
level, yet strengthened on another level.
 Drugs and alcohol or similar behaviors become a substitute for a person
whose psychic apparatus has lost its adaptive power.
 And while drugs and alcohol provide temporary relief from psychic
pain, deteriorating chemical effects on the mind/body result in the use
of more primary defense operations like:




Denial
Splitting
Projective identification, and:
Grandiosity
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Toward Treatment Conceptualizations
 While these defensive
operations are attempts to
shield the individual from the
intolerable affects produced by
the loss of self worth and other
behaviors that destroy the
individuals world, or…
 The defenses arise because of
an ego that was never viable…
 Treatment from the
psychodynamic perspective for
ego related pathologies and
addictions , nevertheless,
follow well thought steps and
time honored procedures.
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Kernberg’s Supportive Psychodynamic
Therapy
 Three Principles
1.
Clarification of individuals behavior “this is what you are doing
with me.” Distortions are confronted in a supportive, firm, and
caring manner.
2.
After the individual is completely aware of what they have
done, gain consensual validation from group and point out how
they do this with others.
3.
Encourage individuals to act differently with others outside
therapy.
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Inter-Group Dynamic Corrective Emotional Process
 Goals
 Ego

Strengthening ego

Strengthening ego defenses for adaptive response to real life
situations

Examining idealized views of parents and other objects and the
impact of self-absorption (who in the group remind the self of
past object relations and what is being triggered).
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Inter-Group Dynamic Corrective Emotional Process
 Object relations

Creating a new relationship template from which alternative
interpretations can be made and new relationship options
entertained
 Self-in-relations



Creating a new template for mutual empathy
Balancing autonomy and connection
Alternative definitions of self-in-relationships
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General Therapist Tasks and Functions
 Establish trust in a therapeutic
 Encourage a transference relationship
 Interpret clients and groups:
–Defenses
–Counter transference
–Developmental fixations
–Resistance
–Early relationship templates
–Adaptive coping with real life
–Critical relationships
–Inadequate parenting
–Disconnections
 And then reflexively bridge, cycle, challenge, and offer insights derived
from interpretations with the goal of group members completing a
second cycle on their own.
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A Brief Review of Object Related Psychodynamics
 Understanding relationships as
specific influence in development
of self
 Libido is object seeking
 Object: the target of a need or
that which will satisfy a need
 Basic motive is to relate
 Focus on ego development
through object relations
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A Transference Interlude
The shapes we buried, dwell about,
Familiar, in the Rooms –
Untarnished by the Sepulcher
The Modlering Playmate comes –
In just the jacket that he wore –
Long buttoned in the Mold
Since we – old mornings – Children – played...
The Grave yields back her Robberies –
The years our pilfered things...
(Emily Dickinson)
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Common Clues to Transference
 Stronger feelings than seem to fit the circumstance
 Instant reactions
 Obsession
 Defending others when it’s your issue
 Unexplainable attractions / repulsions
 Personalizing others actions, and ;

A similarity in the characteristics of our partners and acquaintances
 Ultimately, transference shows us that other people are not out there as totally other.
 They are reflections/projections/ of our own story and how it played out. Instead of
seeking need fulfilment in an adult way, we add on expectations and entitlements that
belong to the child/parent relationship.
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A Brief Review of Object Related Psychodynamics
 Initial relationships



Single most important factor in development
Constitute a template upon which others are patterned
Early formation and differentiation of psychological structures that comprise images of self and
others
 Dependency results in lack of differentiation or fusion
 Development moves toward independence and autonomy by means of
support
 Problems result from developmental arrests in relationship experiences
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The Gift of Transference and Finding the
True Self
When love is my only defence, I am invincible...
- Tao Te Ching
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Guntrip and Fairbairn: Model
of Self and Pathology
 Self is present from birth
 Earliest form of anxiety is separation anxiety triggered by
abandonment or failure of attunement
 Internalize objects is defensive and happens because of
frustrating and unsatisfactory aspects of early MFC’s
 Degree of frustration leads to introjection not mere
internalization
 Introjection involves three components: object
representation (OR); self representation (SR), and affect
states related to (OR)and (SR)
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WHEN FRUSTRATION HAPPENS
 SPLITTING OCCURS – A GOOD OBJECT AND BAD
OBJECT
 A GOOD SELF AND A BAD SELF
 MAIN CORE WHICH IS NOT SPLIT OR REPRESSED
BECOMES EGO IDEAL
 The person is left with 3 part ego
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Central Ego attached to
Repressed Good Self
attached to
Ego
Ideal
Good
Object
Repressed Bad Self attached
to
Bad
Object
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Bad Self
Internal Saboteur
Hostile Attitude toward all objects
Including good self
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Internal Saboteur
 Distrusts all promise of hope
 Especially hope coming from good objects and sometimes
therapist
 Believes / thinks it will be tricked into promises that things
can change, get better, trust is possible, etc.
 Can and will attack good self for being gullible, stupid, that
love, change, and trust is possible
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Un-cohesive Self
 World is dominated by internal world of self and object
representations leaving little psychic energy for authentic
relationships
 This false-self (FS) configuration rules interactions with
others
 The person is either rebellious or compliant or oscillates
between the two
 Individuals in external world are coerced or forced to
comply with the internal reality of FS inner experiences
and expectations
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Repressed Good Self in Relationship With:
 Tends to idealize or fantasize others
 Can feel unworthy, shameful, that their needs are sick
and that their love can destroy
 Believe they are too needy
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Repressed Bad Self in Relationship With:
 Feels rejected and held in contempt by others
 Turns anger inward, attacks self and those that
promise they care
 Threatened by the possibility of hope
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Repressed Good Self and the Exciting Object
 This needy part can be a bottomless pit – never
satisfied, and the tantalizing good object can never
fulfill it promise of perfect love, acceptance, and
complete nurturance without any limits or
disappointments
 Craving self
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Some Useful Terms
 Self-object
 Optimal Frustration
 Refueling
 Transmuting Internalization (process of developing psychic structure –






mirroring and idealization completed)
False-Self
Good enough mother / mothering
Self-care
Affect regulation
Transitional object
Adversarial
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Dependency and the Self
 Defects in the self lead to failures in ego-ideal formation
 Failure to be admired, admire, be encouraged, valued, suffer
from chronic feelings of self-worth/esteem
 Inability to accurately evaluate oneself plays significant role
in one’s ability to see the relative health of “love object”
 Alcohol/drugs, and other behaviors then attempt to refuel
grandiose self and activate the all good-self and object
images
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Archaic and Mature Mirroring / Idealization
 Early recovery typically centers around archaic
mirroring
 Kohut believed that we never outgrow our need for
self-objects
 Therapy is only complete when the person can form
healthy attachments outside of the therapeutic milieu
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Alexithymia
 Inability to name and use one’s own emotions – to
verbalize them
 Instead the addict may experience sensations and
experience somatization of feelings
 Use then become a way to stave of waves of sensations
 Thinking becomes mundane, operative, and boring
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Anhedonia
 The inability to experience joy, pleasure, or happiness
 Alcohol, drugs, and behaviors become the only way to
feel or distract from feeling distressful states
 Return of the unbearable (keep my self stimulated)
 These is seen in all types of addicted sufferers,
especially the work alcoholic
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Narcissism Revisited:
Kohut Redefining
 The old view – selfishness or self-centeredness, a driven
stubbornness insisted by a immature individual who wants
to get his or her own way
 Kohut instead views narcissism as misguided attempts at
seeking for relatedness – disturbances in the self and in
most important interpersonal relationships where
mirroring and validation failed
 Looking for a balance in the valuation of others and
ourselves, our importance and our potential
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The Psychodynamics of Narcissism
 One down - idealize the other
 One up – need mirroring to confirm their special
 Once mirroring is received the other is often discarded
 Usually brought on by some real or imagined hurt
 Holding contempt, being shameful of oneself, one
cannot tolerate similar qualities in the other
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Absence of Self-Worth
And the Role of Shame
 Pain of feeling shameful
 Leads to defenses of grandiosity, superiority, and self-
sufficiency
 All the while the self is thought to be flawed and
imperfect – which generates the need for narcissistic
defense
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Shame Types
 Narcissistic shame type: experience vulnerabilities,
shortcoming, and failures that must be denied and
avoided at all costs
 Masochistic Type – defend against shame to the degree
that they are guiltless
 Both types have inability or serious difficulties in understanding
internal signals, setting boundaries, or respecting other person’s
boundaries
 Can be prone to exhibitionistic, voyeuristic, and sexually fixated
behaviors
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Shame Prone People in Society
 Often excruciatingly ambitious
 Success driven
 Shame is contained by constant achievements,
grandiosity, or addictive-compulsive acting out
 There is a need to be seen as powerful, independent,
beautiful, and successful
 All that activity can be seen as a defense to distract others from
what is hidden
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Interpersonal Relationships and Recovery
1. DENIAL OF NEED FOR THERS
(“I don’t need anyone.”)
Addiction
2. DENIAL OF NEED FOR ALCOHOL AND DRUGS
(“I am not addicted to alcohol and drugs.”)
1st Step
1. ACCEPTANCE OF NEED FOR ALCOHOL AND DRUGS
(“I am alcoholic or addict.”)
Recovery
2. ACCEPTANCE AND NEED FOR OTHERS
(“I need other people.”)
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