Delusion and reparation

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8973639
AutoresCatalina Bronstein (British Psychoanalytical Society, autor correspondente)
Ano2018
Volume99
Fascículo5
Páginas1057-1074
Data de publicação2018-09-03
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315
EditoraTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00207578.2018.1489706
PMID33951786
OpenAlexW2902174534
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas4

This paper looks at the reparative quality of delusional systems. The Author explores and expands Freud's notion of delusion as an 'attempt at reparation'. Even if a delusion is mostly the consequence of hatred of reality and an omnipotent idealized construction to protect the ego from persecutory anxiety stemming from a destructive superego, its content and function show greater complexity. The function of a delusion is not just to protect the ego but also to protect the object (the analyst in the session) from the patient's violence. In order to show the coexistence in delusional systems of manic defensive aspects with proper depressive reparative ones, the Author presents detailed clinical material from the analysis of an adolescent patient who suffered from intense persecuting voices that negated her right to be alive. The paper proposes that understanding the fluctuation and manifestation of reparative unconscious phantasies, the recognition of their depressive aspects and of their specific function as they are lived out in the transference relationship is central to the development of psychic change in psychotic processes

Delusion · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Forgiveness and Related Behaviors · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Torture, Ethics, and Law