Ordinary Language Essentials of Clinical Psychoanalytic Theory
(adapted from George Klein, 1976 or others as noted) - Character
or personality, whether normal, healthy or pathological, is to a
great extent the result of conflict, i.e., the resolution of
incompatible intentions or dispositions. Crisis and dilemma are
inescapable and are the expected and necessary conditions for
normal maturation. Neuroses and personality disorders are the
ways this process can go wrong. Growth or maturation involves
the incompatibility of old and new demands, crisis, impasse, and
resolution. (In therapy, the analyst recognizes this as the
crunch (Paul Russell), or the testing of boundaries; in the
transference as a representation of old dilemmas and new
opportunities.) - The ability to tolerate and enjoy sexuality,
aggression, conflict, separation and being alone develops in a
parental holding environment understood in terms of the key
parental figures availability, intrusion, reliability, and
empathy (Donald Winnicott and Hei