Psychoanalytic object relations theory revised
Affect systems and the notion of drives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8973352 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Otto F Kernberg (Weill Cornell Medical College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 105 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 790-803 |
| Publication date | 2024-09-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00207578.2024.2397282 |
| PMID | 39576085 |
| OpenAlex | W4404638340 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 12 |
This paper explores the concept of drives as basic motivational neurobiological structures determining the organization of psychic life. I express my agreement with Mark Solms' radical reformulation of the general principles organizing human behaviour at the neurobiological and psychodynamic levels, his combination of Friston's computational information theory and Panksepp's affect systems. I agree with him that the affect systems described by Panksepp constitute the primary drives and that the conflicts between affect systems are the origin of unconscious intrapsychic conflict. I disagree with Solms in my proposition that, while the original unconscious conflicts indeed reflect conflicts between antagonistic affects, I believe that the integration of affect systems into internalized object relations determines a significant motivational shift: now unconscious conflicts are between complex organization of idealized and persecutory object relations at oedipal and preoedipal levels, and no longer between affect systems themselves. At the various developmental levels, the integrated fusion of affective components of these conflicts in effect evolves into libido and aggression as supraordinate motivational systems, but they no longer can be considered biological drives
Affect (linguistics · Affect theory · Cognitive science · Epistemology · Object (grammar · Object relations theory · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Artificial Intelligence · Communication · Computer Science · Embodied and Extended Cognition · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Mental Health Research Topics · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |