Psychodynamic Thought
In Relation to Group Theory and Practice
 Today’s Agenda
 Psychodynamic Lecture Part A (1.2o hour)
 Break 15
 Psychodynamic Lecture Part B (1.15 hour))
Solowoniuk, 2007
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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 suggests 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.
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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 to 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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Enter Addiction (contd)
Thus, addiction can represent or take the form of

Yearning for praise, 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…
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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.

The drug or behavior then becomes the self-object and
 The addicted sufferer symbolically compels a mirroring self-object to
self-sooth it or compels the idealized object to submit to his or
merging into it
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Merging and Compelling Behaviors
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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 and how it acts, reacts, 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 self development.
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Psychodynamic Theory, Becoming Real and
Authentic
 Help addicted sufferer :
1) Realize that they will not be rejected or unloved for who they
really are
2) See that its their behavior and actions that lead them to be
rejected or unloved
3) Recognize that they are separate, alone, and responsible for
their condition in life
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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: 1) mirroring, 2 idealizing
1. Mirroring self-object: is a 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 tune with the
infant/child's achievements.
 It is this pole that the self’s basic strivings for power and success emanate.
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Mirroring Self-Object
 Therefore if the
parents/caregiver/or other mirror
these feelings to the
Infant/Child/Adolescent (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 ICAs needs
may result in an individual who
needs constant admiration,
confirmation, and recognition
from others because they are
empty and cannot give this to
themselves.
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2) 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 / she 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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Here is an example of a
“Mirroring Self-Object”
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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.
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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.
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Introducing: Margaret Mahler’s Theory of Ego
Development (cont.)
 Essentially, her work revealed the interpersonal relations of the “I” and
how these relations determined the building of future intra-psychic
structures and in turn…
 How these structures preserve, modify, and reactivate past relations
throughout the lifespan.
 Mahler was able to delineate the birth and evolving 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 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
mother/father/caregiver (MFC) world,
and child may result.
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Normal Symbiosis – Attachment (1 to 4 Months)
 By the second month of life, the infant becomes aware of
(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
Solowoniuk, 2007
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Splitting the Good and the Bad
 MFC is a beacon of orientation, infant cannot comprehend
separateness
 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.
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Failure to Attach to External Other
 Failure here may lead to an ego or I that is
 Affectionless, lack capacity to experience guilt,
 Withdrawn (schizoid) from interest in the world, self/other, engendering a
basic mistrust, defense against object relatedness
 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”.
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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."
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Returning to Mahler/Stage II: Separation
Individuation
 Differentiation and Hatching (5 to 10 months)
 As strong as the child’s yearnings for attachment are, the infant gradually begins to
experience even more powerful urges to move away from his/her MFCs. - 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 extreme 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
MFCs 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 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
 The omnipotent mental
representation can be recalled (at least
in vigor)
 Used to defend against the danger of
loss of self-esteem / threat of shame
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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 MFCs.
 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….
 The birth of shame may begin here
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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 lost 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 MFCs can 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:

“All Good” MFCs and “All Bad” MFCs
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The Reemergence of Splitting :
Good vs. Bad (Cont.).
 While in the symbiotic phase, the MFCs 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 MFCs” and “bad MFCs”
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,
MFCs are not always good.
 If the good MFC and the bad
MFC are one person, then I, too
must harbour 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, negotiation of this stage can
impact the use projective identification in later life.
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Stage III Object Constancy:
Reconciling the Split Within (cont.).
 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.
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Object Constancy Achieved
 However, when achieved:
 The child can hold onto both positive and negative images of the MFCs
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, or be dependent on
relationships) to ward off painful affective states.
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According to Psychodynamic Theorists…
Failure of the facilitating environment can make
psychic apparatus vulnerable to:
 0 to 4-5 months
(psychosis)
 5 months to 2 years
(character disorders)
 3 years and greater
(neurosis; e.g.., - depression, anxiety,
obsessive behaviour)
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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
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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
(e.g., empathy, compassion, sublimation, altruism, repression, humour)

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
 Encourage a transference relationships
 Interpret client 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
 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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A Brief Review of Object Related Psychodynamics (cont.).
 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
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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 isn’t 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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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
 Internalized objects are defensive and happen 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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A DIALOGUE WITH THE INTERNAL SABOTEUR
LOVE OR LOVE ME NOT: MEASURING
THERAPIST PERSONAL EROS
Don’t misinterpret the transference (hate in)
Interpreting the transference “what is our client trying
to make us feel”
Therapist must have room for despair in themselves
and be loyal to that despair1(vessel of despair)
Preventing nowhere we make possible the clients
experience of abysmal emptiness1
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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Internal Reality
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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Internal Reality
Repressed Bad Self in Relationship With:
Feels rejected and held in contempt by others
Turns anger inward, attacks self and those that make
promises
Threatened by the possibility of hope
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Internal Reality
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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TECHNIQUES:
TOWARD
SURRENDER
1) FACE SYMPTOMS
2) WILLINGLY ACCEPT
3) FLOAT
4) LET TIME PASS
5) NO-SEPARATION
Some Useful Terms
 Optimal Frustration
 Refuelling
 Transmuting Internalization (process of developing psychic
structure – mirroring and idealization)
 False-Self
 Good enough mother / mothering
 Affect regulation
 Alexithymia (inability to name and use one’s emotions)
 Anhedonia incapability to experience pleasure)
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