Preconscious defence analysis, memory and structural change.

Full Abstract

Beginning with the ways in which the use of the couch lends 'depth to the surface' (Erikson, 1954), I explore the topography of the inter- and intrasubjective psychoanalytic situation and process. I suggest that defences are not by definition unconscious but rather can be observed operating at conscious and preconscious levels, particularly under these conditions. A focus on preconscious disavowal provides a window on what has become unconscious repression. As a result of eliciting and then verbalising the operation of such defences with regard to anxieties in the here-and-now transference, declarative memories of increasingly specific childhood fantasies and events begin to hold sway over unmanageable procedural remnants from the analysand's past. With this may even come the possibility of neuronal regeneration, the more generalisable enhancement of declarative and symbolic functions and the sense of identity with which these are associated. Herein may lie one enduring therapeutic effect of the 'talking cure' - putting feelings into words - as one among a variety of psychotherapeutic modalities.

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Author information

Author/s: Ross, John Munder (JM);

Affiliation: LMLRoss(-atsign-)aol.com

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: The International journal of psycho-analysis (Int J Psychoanal), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Feb; vol 84 (issue Pt 1) : pp 59-76

Dates: Created 2003/03/17; Completed 2003/09/12; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12639264, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adaptation, Psychological - physiology
Brain - physiopathology
Consciousness
Defense Mechanisms
Female
Humans

Male
Memory - physiology
Mental Disorders - therapy
Psychoanalytic Therapy
Regression (Psychology)
Repression

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