Dr. Geoff Goodman
ext. 4277
ggoodman@liu.edu
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Course Website:
http://myweb.cwpost.liu.edu/ggoodman/home.htm
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Developmental lines and other developmental concepts
o Enduring role of real parents in structuring the child’s mind
o Parents serve as models of ways of behaving, relating to others,
modes of psychic defense, coping with problems, or traumatic
events
o Process of internalization of the actual parent sets the course of ego
development
o Relationships are moderators of the maturational developmental
process preordained by unfolding of drives
o Developmental line from dependency to emotional self-reliance and
adult object relationship
• Biological unity between mother-infant couple (0-6 mos.)
• Need-fulfilling relationship based on child and object based on child’s
imperative body needs (6-12 mos.)
• Child achieves consistent representation of mother—can form
relationships that survive frustrations and disappointment (1-2 yrs.)
• Positive and negative feelings are directed towards the same person—
ambivalence is normal (2-3 yrs.)
• Wish to be independent in conflict with
• Wish to retain complete devotion of mother
• Possessiveness of parent of opposite sex and jealousy and rivalry with
the same-sex parent—need to become aware of the separate existence
of these objects (3-5 yrs.)
• Transfer of libido from parents to peers and others (e.g., teachers) as
representatives of community (5-11 yrs.)
• Regression from latency to demanding, contrary, inconsiderate attitude
characteristic of earlier stages (11-13 yrs.)
• Adolescence—ego’s struggle to master upsurge of sexuality and
aggression through two new defense mechanisms—intellectualization
and asceticism (13-18 yrs.)
o Other developmental lines
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Sucking to eating
Wetting and soiling to bladder and bowel control
Irresponsibility to responsibility in body management
Infant’s play with his or her own and mother’s body to the use of toys
and symbolic objects
o Importance of developmental lines
• Evaluation of child’s level of maturity alongside psychiatric symptoms
• Phase-appropriate developmental issues
• Meaning of behavior in the context of the phase
• Profile of adaptation shown by child cutting across aspects of development
• Etiological significance—unevenness of development might reflect a risk
factor for psychiatric disturbance
• Therapist needs to help restore child to the path of “normal”
development
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Anna Freudian views of developmental psychopathology
o General features of the model—seven categories for psychological
disorders
• Nondifferentiation between somatic and psychic processes (e.g.,
eczema, asthma, migraine)
• Compromise between psychic agencies that lead to phobias, hysteria,
and obsessional neurotic symptom
• Eruptions from the id due to porous boundary between ego and id (e.g.,
delinquency, criminality)
• Shifts in economy of libido
• From mind to body—hypochondriacal symptoms
• Withdrawal of object libido onto the self—disorders of self-esteem or selfcenteredness
• Changes in quality or direction of aggression—learning failure of selfinjurious behavior
• Avoiding conflicts of oedipal phase—whining, clinging, dependent
behaviors
• Organic causes, which can be confused with inhibitions and other
neurotic symptoms
o An Anna Freudian model of anxiety
• Distinction between fear of internal world (impulses, wishes, feelings)
and “objective anxiety” (fear of real reactions of parents or other
aspects of external world)
• Four types of anxiety related to internal sources
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Threat of arousal of destructiveness
Traumatic events come to represent superego prohibitions
Identification with the mother’s anxiety
Events trigger memory of traumatic loss
• If defenses are inadequate, the child is prone to panic states and
anxiety attacks
• Anxiety matures from a diffuse somatic excitation to signal anxiety
o The notion of developmental disharmonies
• Development is not expected to proceed evenly across developmental
lines
• Gross disharmony is a “fertile breeding ground” for later neurosis as
well as severe psychopathology
• Developmental disturbances arise out of both internal and external
stresses
o The Anna Freudian model of severe personality disorders
• Neurosis—incomplete inhibition of impulse from id
• Severe personality disorders—structural deficits in ego
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Stable reality testing
Development of mature defenses
Anxiety tolerance
Superego strength
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Evaluation
o Concept of developmental lines illustrated how the three agencies
of the mind (id, ego, superego) function
o Adolescent turmoil is not inevitable
o Children do feel guilt, misery, and despair (i.e., depression)
o Developmental achievements predict risk for the onset of mental
disorder
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Margaret Mahler’s developmental model (three phases of
separation-individuation)
o Normal autism (first few weeks of life)
• “Quasi solid stimulus barrier”--”an autistic shell which [keeps] external
stimuli out”
• Autism, schizophrenia—regressions to this phase
o Symbiotic phase—dim awareness of the need—satisfying object (i.e.,
caregiver; 1-6 mos.)
• Undifferentiated fusion with mother
• “State of primitive hallucinatory disorientation”
o Separation-individuation phase
• Differentiation (“hatching”) and the development of body image
subphase (4-10 mos.)
• Practicing subphase (9-15 mos.)
• Rapprochement (15-24 mos.)
• Consolidation of individuality and beginnings of emotional object
constancy (20-36 mos.)
o Prominence of ambivalence in rapprochement subphase
• Need to believe in mother’s omnipotence (with fulfillment and need
gratification)
• Need to protect oneself against reengulfment (regression to symbiotic
phase) and be separate and omnipotent
• Integration of disparate representations diminished ambivalence
o Consolidation of individuality/emotional object constancy subphase
Internalization of constant, positively cathected, inner image of mother
Object permanence often precedes object constancy (A-B paradigm)
Stable self boundaries are attained
Unification of good and bad object into whole representation that is
final achievement in development of mature object relationship
(influence of Klein)
• Toddler able to use reliable internal image in mother’s physical
absence—temporary separations lengthened and better tolerated
• Advances in communication (e.g., Bowlby’s goal-corrected partnership)
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Separation-individuation and psychopathology
o Narcissistic personality disorder—lacking “narcissistic libido”
(healthy self-regard)
• Deficient caregiving in symbiotic phase and “refueling” in practicing
subphase
• Failure to support child empathically during rapprochement subphase
with their conflict between autonomy and fusion  collapse of
omnipotence
o Borderline personality disorder—conflict between closeness and
autonomy
• Caregiver responds to returning infants in rapprochement subphase
with aggression or withdrawal
• Persistent longing for and dread of fusion with caregiver
• Clinging, demanding self masks more competent, real self
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Empirical evidence for Mahler’s developmental model
o Symbiotic intersubjective unity characterizes infancy and early
childhood but only mental representations of mental states
o Two dimensions of self and object relatedness (Blatt)
• Differentiation of self from other (Mahler)
• Mature levels of relating to others (Blatt)
• Object Representation Inventory—measures quality and complexity of
self and object representations
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Criticism and evaluation (Lyons-Ruth, 1991)
o Normality and deviance not clearly established—ambivalent
behaviors considered normal by Mahler during rapprochement are
considered deviant by attachment researchers
o Attachment research suggests that ambivalence represents infants’
exaggerated attempts to attain feelings of security
o Idea of psychopathology as fixation or arrested development is
challenged
o Different assumptions—individuation versus attachment security
o Decreased separation distress at separation  healthy selfassertion?
• Secure toddlers more distressed than avoidant toddlers
• Secure toddlers have more desirable outcomes
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Persistence
Compliance
Peer competence
Autonomic problem-solving
Affective sharing
Requests for assistance
o Lyons-Ruth calls for need to understand early interpersonal
interactions as well as intrapsychic conflicts and defenses related to
aggression and libido
• For Mahler, lack of separation distress signifies increased
differentiation and integration of maternal object representation
• For Lyons-Ruth, lack of separation distress signifies defense against
anxiety aroused by physical absence of mother
o Perhaps “normal” ambivalence associated with split-off
representations occurs earlier (e.g., 8-12 mos.; see Rogers, Ozonoff,
& Maslin-Cole, 1993)