'Reductive' analysis in the light of modern infant research.

Abstract

From a Jungian viewpoint the findings of modern infant research can be seen as dealing in minute detail with the process by which the Self, the archetype of order, becomes incarnated in the infant and organizes the individual's development and maturation in accordance with the facilitating environment. Viewing Lichtenberg's 'groundplan of the infant-environment system' as archetypal, the paper traces the impact of this groundplan on the interactive field in analysis. Descriptions are offered of key issues in infant research, such as the growing sense of self (emerging self, core self, subjective and verbal self) with its various interpersonal needs and experiences (Stern 1985), the motivational systems (Lichtenberg 1989), the precursors of fantasy life i.e. the 'RIGs' (representations of interactions that have been generalized') (Stern 1985), and the categorical and vitality affects. The paper's main concern, however, is the practical application of these findings to the analytic situation, in so far as they cultivate a deeper sensitivity to and understanding of the emotional nuances, the 'metacommunications', so to speak, beneath the discourse of manifest issues and 'contents' of the unconscious.