Leon Balter
Biographic Data
| ID | 4394855 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Leon Balter |
| GIVEN NAMES | Leon |
| FAMILY NAME | Balter |
| SIGNATURE | BALTER L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 46 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1969 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Spatial Translation and Regression in Dreams
The Nicholas Young phenomenon involves an immediate shift in dreams to more regressive mental functioning whenever, in the manifest ideational content, the dreamer or protagonist crosses a topographical boundary or threshold (spatial translation). This phenomenon thus furthers the regression typical in dreams. Eight examples of the Young phenomenon are presented. An attempt to explain this highly specialized phenomenon addresses dreams in series,…
Adventures in Psychoanalytic Concepts and Treatment
KeywordsDreamschild analysisclassical analysisFreudmourningoedipal complexhistory of analysisrepressioninsightstructural theorydevelopmentanalytic processplay
Discussion of Hermann Argelander’s paper
I would like to express my appreciation to the International Journal of Psychoanalysis for organizing a forum where papers written by analysts from one part of the international psychoanalytic comm
Dead of Night
Dead of Night, the first psychoanalytic horror film, was produced in England in 1945, immediately after the end of World War II--that is, after the English population had suffered systematic Nazi terror from imminent invasion, incessant aerial bombing, and rocket-bombs. This film continued the prewar format of horror films based on themes of the supernatural and the hubris and excesses of science. However, it introduced psychoanalysis as the scie…
Nested Ideation and The Problem of Reality
This paper continues a line of investigation begun in a previous paper on nested dreams and works of art in dreams (Balter 2005). Part I of the present paper seeks to establish that works of art with nested dreams and works of art within them display certain phenomena also observed in comparable dreams: (i) they unsuccessfully deny a painful reality represented in the nested element; (2) they present an antithetical view of that reality (both den…
Nested Ideation and The Problem of Reality
This study uses seven well-analyzed dreams to establish three empirical generalizations about dreams and works of art nested in dreams: (1) Those dreams attempt to deny a painful reality in some way depicted in the nested element; (2) they present an antithetical view of that reality (both denying and affirming); and (3) they are consistently associated with the problem of reality (the problem of deciding what is real or true). The explanation of…
Magic and the Aesthetic Illusion
The aesthetic illusion is the subjective experience that the content of a work of art is reality. It has an intrinsic relation to magic, an intrapsychic maneuver oriented toward modification and control of the extraspyschic world, principally through ego functioning. Magic is ontogenetically and culturally archaic, expresses the omnipotence inherent in primary narcissism, and operates according to the logic of the primary process. Magic is a cons…
Observation and Theory in Psychoanalysis
The development of self psychology by Heinz Kohut illustrates the influence of observational method on theory formation in psychoanalysis. In 1959 Kohut began to emphasize empathy and introspection over the traditional combination of free association and evenly suspended attention. This became an important part of a process of revision in psychoanalytic theory which culminated in self psychology. This paper demonstrates how and why that particula…
Psychoanalytic Observation
The recent focus on empathy as the essential activity in psychoanalytic data gathering has underemphasized the complexity of psychoanalytic observation and has failed to identify what truly makes it unique among modes of psychological investigation. It is a process that includes introspection and empathy. However, it also includes the analyst's observation of the patient's behavior, and particularly verbal behavior, in a way that is not necessari…
Delusion
On the Analyzing Instrument
Starting from certain unpublished remarks by Otto Isakower about "the analyzing instrument," we de define it more precisely. The analyzing instrument has two constituents: a voluntary and controlled, situation-specific and goal-specific regressed state of mind in the analysand and a near-identical one of the same nature in the analyst. These parts function together through mutually evocative communication, leading to the elucidation of the analys…
Meeting of the New York Psychoanalytic Society
The Mother as Source of Power
On the Analyzing Instrument
Starting from certain unpublished remarks by Otto Isakower about "the analyzing instrument," we de define it more precisely. The analyzing instrument has two constituents: a voluntary and controlled, situation-specific and goal-specific regressed state of mind in the analysand and a near-identical one of the same nature in the analyst. These parts function together through mutually evocative communication, leading to the elucidation of the analys…
Psychoanalytic Observation
The recent focus on empathy as the essential activity in psychoanalytic data gathering has underemphasized the complexity of psychoanalytic observation and has failed to identify what truly makes it unique among modes of psychological investigation. It is a process that includes introspection and empathy. However, it also includes the analyst's observation of the patient's behavior, and particularly verbal behavior, in a way that is not necessari…
The Mother as Source of Power
Nested Ideation and The Problem of Reality
This paper continues a line of investigation begun in a previous paper on nested dreams and works of art in dreams (Balter 2005). Part I of the present paper seeks to establish that works of art with nested dreams and works of art within them display certain phenomena also observed in comparable dreams: (i) they unsuccessfully deny a painful reality represented in the nested element; (2) they present an antithetical view of that reality (both den…
Nested Ideation and The Problem of Reality
This study uses seven well-analyzed dreams to establish three empirical generalizations about dreams and works of art nested in dreams: (1) Those dreams attempt to deny a painful reality in some way depicted in the nested element; (2) they present an antithetical view of that reality (both denying and affirming); and (3) they are consistently associated with the problem of reality (the problem of deciding what is real or true). The explanation of…
Magic and the Aesthetic Illusion
The aesthetic illusion is the subjective experience that the content of a work of art is reality. It has an intrinsic relation to magic, an intrapsychic maneuver oriented toward modification and control of the extraspyschic world, principally through ego functioning. Magic is ontogenetically and culturally archaic, expresses the omnipotence inherent in primary narcissism, and operates according to the logic of the primary process. Magic is a cons…
Observation and Theory in Psychoanalysis
The development of self psychology by Heinz Kohut illustrates the influence of observational method on theory formation in psychoanalysis. In 1959 Kohut began to emphasize empathy and introspection over the traditional combination of free association and evenly suspended attention. This became an important part of a process of revision in psychoanalytic theory which culminated in self psychology. This paper demonstrates how and why that particula…
Meeting of the New York Psychoanalytic Society
The Mother as Source of Power
Meeting of the New York Psychoanalytic Society
On the Analyzing Instrument
Starting from certain unpublished remarks by Otto Isakower about "the analyzing instrument," we de define it more precisely. The analyzing instrument has two constituents: a voluntary and controlled, situation-specific and goal-specific regressed state of mind in the analysand and a near-identical one of the same nature in the analyst. These parts function together through mutually evocative communication, leading to the elucidation of the analys…
Delusion
Psychoanalytic Observation
The recent focus on empathy as the essential activity in psychoanalytic data gathering has underemphasized the complexity of psychoanalytic observation and has failed to identify what truly makes it unique among modes of psychological investigation. It is a process that includes introspection and empathy. However, it also includes the analyst's observation of the patient's behavior, and particularly verbal behavior, in a way that is not necessari…
Observation and Theory in Psychoanalysis
The development of self psychology by Heinz Kohut illustrates the influence of observational method on theory formation in psychoanalysis. In 1959 Kohut began to emphasize empathy and introspection over the traditional combination of free association and evenly suspended attention. This became an important part of a process of revision in psychoanalytic theory which culminated in self psychology. This paper demonstrates how and why that particula…
Magic and the Aesthetic Illusion
The aesthetic illusion is the subjective experience that the content of a work of art is reality. It has an intrinsic relation to magic, an intrapsychic maneuver oriented toward modification and control of the extraspyschic world, principally through ego functioning. Magic is ontogenetically and culturally archaic, expresses the omnipotence inherent in primary narcissism, and operates according to the logic of the primary process. Magic is a cons…
Nested Ideation and The Problem of Reality
This study uses seven well-analyzed dreams to establish three empirical generalizations about dreams and works of art nested in dreams: (1) Those dreams attempt to deny a painful reality in some way depicted in the nested element; (2) they present an antithetical view of that reality (both denying and affirming); and (3) they are consistently associated with the problem of reality (the problem of deciding what is real or true). The explanation of…
Nested Ideation and The Problem of Reality
This paper continues a line of investigation begun in a previous paper on nested dreams and works of art in dreams (Balter 2005). Part I of the present paper seeks to establish that works of art with nested dreams and works of art within them display certain phenomena also observed in comparable dreams: (i) they unsuccessfully deny a painful reality represented in the nested element; (2) they present an antithetical view of that reality (both den…
Dead of Night
Dead of Night, the first psychoanalytic horror film, was produced in England in 1945, immediately after the end of World War II--that is, after the English population had suffered systematic Nazi terror from imminent invasion, incessant aerial bombing, and rocket-bombs. This film continued the prewar format of horror films based on themes of the supernatural and the hubris and excesses of science. However, it introduced psychoanalysis as the scie…
Discussion of Hermann Argelander’s paper
I would like to express my appreciation to the International Journal of Psychoanalysis for organizing a forum where papers written by analysts from one part of the international psychoanalytic comm
Adventures in Psychoanalytic Concepts and Treatment
KeywordsDreamschild analysisclassical analysisFreudmourningoedipal complexhistory of analysisrepressioninsightstructural theorydevelopmentanalytic processplay
Spatial Translation and Regression in Dreams
The Nicholas Young phenomenon involves an immediate shift in dreams to more regressive mental functioning whenever, in the manifest ideational content, the dreamer or protagonist crosses a topographical boundary or threshold (spatial translation). This phenomenon thus furthers the regression typical in dreams. Eight examples of the Young phenomenon are presented. An attempt to explain this highly specialized phenomenon addresses dreams in series,…
Psychology (13 works) · Psychoanalysis (11 works) · Psychoanalytic theory (7 works) · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications (6 works) · Cognitive psychology (5 works) · Art (4 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology (3 works) · Art history (3 works)