Refinding the Good Old Object

Abstract

This paper explores the refinding of the good old object, with the aim of placing in the foreground an aspect of the analytic process that often remains in the background, even dissociated. Our role leaves us vulnerable to slipping into an overassociation of badness with old objects (parents and key others) and of goodness with new objects (analysts). The realm of the good old object is expanded through a rethinking of Fairbairn's concept of the exciting object. I posit a dialectic of excitement and enchantment that highlights the exciting aspects of the good object and the enlivening aspects of the exciting object. Looking more closely at the clinical implications of the refinding of the good old object, I explore the mutual combustion of overlapping aspects of patient and analyst's good old object experience. This enlivening synergy can be viewed as a substrate for all that allows us to productively navigate the bad object interlocks that are central in the analytic process.