Paranoid-schizoid Position Research Articles

Men’s anxieties and defences regarding gender (in)equality in the workplace: An object-relations psychoanalysis of organisational masculinities

This article explores men’s psychic attachments to organisational masculinities in the context of gender equality initiatives in the UK finance sector. Deploying an object-relations psychoanalysis and generating interview data with 30 male executives and non-executives, it unpacks why and how men outwardly support but unconsciously repudiate workplace gender equality. We explain how this conflict indicates the presence of what Melanie Klein terms the paranoid-schizoid position. We examine two key unconscious processes of the paranoid-schizoid position in men’s accounts: gender-splitting, when men dissociate undesirable aspects of organisational masculinity, and projection, when repressed, negative parts of their masculine ideals are instead attributed to women. This article’s contributions demonstrate how the paranoid-schizoid position is defensive, enabling men to articulate support for gender equality, but also protect paranoid constructions of organisational masculinity when it is threatened by women. Empirically and theoretically, this article shows how organisational masculinities are ambivalent, which in Kleinian terms underscores how masculinity has ‘good’ and ‘bad’ components that are constituted unconsciously through its relationship with the object world. This article concludes by drawing out the implications for (re)positioning men within workplace gender equality debates and activities.

Splitting Into "Us and Them" in Bulgaria: Examples of Repeated Collective Defense Mechanisms During Social Unrest—a Compulsion to Repeat

Abstract: The article explains the concept of splitting as a group's defense mechanism that becomes repeatable observed action during social unrest. Using two examples of protests that demonstrate counterproductive repetitions of mental interpretation, the article explains how splitting reinforces the cognitive formation of "us and them," which becomes a polarized stance of "friends and enemies." It also contributes to the area of large-group psychology by explaining a group's compulsion to repeat. The examples from Bulgaria present mental and behavioral similarities that lead to three questions: (a) if repeated cycles from history can be considered as compulsion to repeat rather than unlearned lessons, (b) if so-what explains it, and (c) if events interpreted and experienced in the same way can explain a collective compulsion to repeat over a period of time. The article uses Vamik Volkan' s theory of "us and them" supported by Carl Schmitt's "friends and enemies." Both explain how a group forms a mental representation of events through splitting that manifests as a form of street violence. Furthermore, Melanie Klein's concept of the paranoid-schizoid position is applied to a large group when explaining the reasons why splitting occurs in the first place. The exploration of the two examples demonstrates that a large group can unconsciously repeat their mental interpretations and perform identical collective behavior as a defense operation during the same pressurized social situations.

Without memory, desire, or sex: contemplating the incel identity

This article proposes a psychoanalytic exploration and interpretation of the incel identity. Through a reading of Melanie Klein's object relations theory and with a particular focus on the theories of Wilfred Bion, the evolution of the incel identity is conceptualised as a product of failed containment and delayed development of a mature psychic mechanism for thinking, firmly rooted in the paranoid–schizoid position. The incel's relationship with women is shown to be characterised by a dependence on psychotic processes and defence mechanisms, and the article concludes with a discussion on the individual's relationship to the incel internet subculture as a basic assumption group. These interpretations are made with reference to examples taken from the transcript of a final video manifesto recorded by a notorious incel prior to his infamous act of fatal misogynistic violence.

POST-INDEPENDENCE DISILLUSIONMENT, PARANOIA, AND XENOPHOBIC VIOLENCE IN SUSAN KIGULI’S SELECTED POEMS

This paper investigates xenophobia in selected poems by Susan Kiguli using psychoanalytic theory in post-independence Uganda. In order to explore the issue of xenophobia in Kiguli's selected poems, the study identified and analyzed three poems from the collection titled Home Floats in the Distance (2012). This was done in order to analyze the issue of xenophobia in Uganda, which has been identified as a post-independence disillusionment. As a direct consequence of this disillusionment, the people have gotten frustrated, and as a result, they have focused their rage on the defenseless immigrants who are now residing in the country. The notion of "institutionalized xenophobia" was also investigated as part of the study, as past governments are culpable of the heinous act. The study that was carried out analyzed Kiguli's portrayal of xenophobia in the poems that are being examined for this study through the lens of Melanie Klein's concept of the paranoid-schizoid position. This was done in order to better understand the scope of the problem. The current study has concluded that the issue of xenophobia is psychologically motivated rather than economic as put forward by the previous studies. The study looked into the issue of xenophobia as a post-independence issue in Uganda during military rule.

Psychoanalyzing democracies: Antagonisms, paranoia, and the productivity of depression

Psychoanalyzing democracies: Antagonisms, paranoia, and the productivity of depression

Understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychiatric trainees and what can help.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased rates of psychological distress and burnout in healthcare staff. How can we understand our experiences of the pandemic? We reflect on the experiences of psychiatry trainees in two north London mental health trusts. From a psychoanalytic understanding, states of extreme anxiety can lead to a manic defence and functioning in the paranoid-schizoid position. This position is derived from object relations theory and is characterised by binary thinking, splitting, projection, defensiveness and 'knee-jerk' decision-making. This can affect our perceptions, responses to others, relationships and ability to function and, therefore, our clinical practice and well-being. We consider the importance of recognising these processes and of organisational containment and having space to reflect. This supports functioning in the depressive position, a state of mind where we can tolerate anxiety, address difficult realities and develop new ideas. We hope these understandings are helpful to our colleagues in all professions.

Good Breast, Bad Breast: Integrating Psychoanalytic Theory with Maternal Practice

Investigating physical experiences in order to understand the psyche is a cornerstone of early psychoanalysis. In describing the infant’s first year, Klein emphasized the emotional aspects of both mother and infant but neglected the physical aspects of the act of nursing. My re-reading of Klein’s concept of the splitting of the “good breast” and the “bad breast” is based on my survey of breastfeeding mothers’ descriptions, as well as information provided in breastfeeding guidebooks. Both claim that infants prefer one (good) breast while rejecting the other (bad) breast. Presenting the actual experiences of breastfeeding mothers, I argue for an interpersonalization of Klein’s theory, and claim that states of consciousness identified with the paranoid-schizoid position operate during breastfeeding in both mother and infant. Implications for psychotherapeutic treatment are discussed by linking the good/bad metaphor to actual nursing experiences.

White Narcissism Under Stress

ABSTRACT This commentary on, “The Paranoid-Schizoid Position and Envious Attacks on the Black Other,” by Ebony Dennis, asserts that there are differences between hate and hatred. I discuss white hatred in terms of the chronic stress on white narcissistic adaptations in the face of the history of white dehumanization and erasure of black people.

Projective Identification and Paranoid-Schizoid Position in Toni Morrison’s Home: A Kleinian Reading

This article applies the Kleinian notion of projective identification on Morrison’s novel, Home . Based on the Kleinian notion of projective identification, there is a tendency in individuals to project the dark aspect of their lives on others. On the other hand, Paranoid-schizoid position is the starting point of the projective identification, originating from splitting of both ego and its objects. Toni Morrison’s novel Home , presents a disturbing narrative of childhood abuse, racial discrimination and impact of war on a traumatized individual. An attempt is made in the article to focus on an analysis of Morrison’s novel, Home , from the perspectives of the Kleinian projective identification, splitting, and schizoid-paranoid positions. The main question that the article poses is to what extent such concepts like projective identification and paranoid – schizoid position are applicable to the main characters, Frank Money in particular, in Toni Morrison’s Home . As a result, it can be concluded that under certain circumstances, Frank Money’s mental condition can be explored in terms of total shift from the past into the present; in addition to his emotional defenses, his social interaction with different institutions in the society has constructed his self because there have been different forces which he has confronted since his childhood.

The Paranoid-Schizoid Position and Envious Attacks on the Black Other

ABSTRACT In this paper, the baby’s annihilation anxiety and dependence on the m/other are metaphorically paralleled to the colonial White-self’s annihilation anxiety and dependence on the Black-slave-other. In so doing, I demonstrate how White defenses developed and are perpetually acted-out in the White-Black dichotomy. This parallel requires an historical exploration of the creation of the concept of “Whiteness” and the corresponding constructs of White superiority and Black inferiority. Colonial White males were societally and legally sanctioned to utilize enslaved Blacks for their dependency and survival needs; this resulted in quelling annihilation anxieties. These psychological dynamics persist today through transgenerational transmission. As a result, the Black person has been psychically mutated into a servile part-object “black body.” Thus, when the black body does not gratify the various dependency needs of the entitled White other, envious attacks on the Black other ensue, to inferiorize the Black other, which restores White psychic equilibrium. I elucidate these dynamics with clinical material using Klein’s theory of the paranoid-schizoid position; specifically, how annihilation anxiety, dependency, loss, and paranoia in the infant parallel similar psychic experiences in the colonial White male and his White female counterpart, and show how such dynamics persist in present day White relations to Blacks.

Die Corona-Pandemie und der hysterische Diskurs nach Lacan

Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden die Ende April 2021 unter dem Hashtag #allesdichtmachen veröffentlichten Video-Clips als ironisch und satirisch zugespitzte Charakterisierung des aktuellen Corona-Diskurses analysiert. Unter Bezug auf den hysterischen Diskurs nach Jacques Lacan ergibt sich folgender Ausgangspunkt für die Analyse: Bürger*innen als gespaltene Subjekte ($) richten Appelle an den großen Anderen der Bundesregierung in der Erwartung, ihnen zu liefern (S1), was sie begehren (zum Beispiel absolute Sicherheit). Die von dem Anderen in der Folge entwickelten Corona-Maßnahmen (S2) können den fundamentalen Mangel (a) jedoch nicht aufheben und führen zu weiteren Appellen der Bürger*innen ($). Die Verdrängung des Objekts klein a im hysterischen Diskurs wird in den Videos als Illusion vollständiger Sicherheit am Beispiel der Unvermeidbarkeit des Todes thematisiert. Das für den hysterischen Diskurs charakteristische Wandern des Begehrens resultiert in kontinuierlichen Appellen nach weiteren Maßnahmen. Die in den Videos vielfach selbst entwickelten Corona-Maßnahmen werden als Vervollständigung des Anderen und Identifikation mit dem Herrn gelesen. Angst wird mit dem hysterischen Begehren nach einem unerfüllten Begehren in Verbindung gebracht. Der Beitrag schließt mit Möglichkeiten der Diskursverschiebung vom hysterischen Diskurs zum Diskurs des Analytikers und von der paranoid-schizoiden zur depressiven Position nach Melanie Klein.

Место символизации в психоаналитической модели мышления: вербальный и до-вербальный аспекты

The article describes the process of symbol formation from the point of view of psychoanalytic theory. The author considers verbal and pre-verbal thinking and connects these two types with the process of symbol formation. The model of thinking proposed by W. Bion is taken as a foundation. The subject's ability to symbolize is characterized as inherent in a developed mental apparatus with a verbal type of thinking. Thinking is understood as the process of formation of mental elements from the processed somatic experience. Through the concept of object relations the author shows the difference in the functioning of thinking in a paranoid-schizoid and depressive position. The author introduces the concept of containerization and clarifies the difference between the mechanisms of normal and pathological projective identification, which the subject uses in a paranoid-schizoid position instead of repression. It is pointed out that the excessive use of pathological projective identification makes it impossible to develop thinking and symbol formation. The author defines the ability of the subject to endure frustration as the primary condition for the development of thinking. The secondary is the successful communication between a mother and an infant contributing to the infant's introjection of the maternal alpha function. This allows the mental apparatus to develop and makes it possible to acquire verbal thinking, to transit to a depressive position and to use symbols as products of mature symbol formation. The symbol is understood as a verbal form for somatic experiences, while the symbol does not have the characteristics of the original object. The author demonstrates, that in the early stages of development, the subject does not use the symbolization inherent in verbal thinking, but symbolic equalization, in which no distinction is made between the object and the symbol. Verbal thinking is considered as related to the acoustic remnants of words that are transmitted by the primary object due to the alpha function. In the early stages of development and in the case of a violation of symbol formation, subjects do not use symbols that are containers for somatic experiences, but pre-verbal and pre-symbolic elements. The author concludes that the process of symbolization underlies the development of the mental apparatus.

클라인적 관점에서 읽은 『제인 에어』

This paper explores how the protagonist, Jane Eyre, forms her identity through maternal connections with other characters within the novel. Jane’s maternal experience can be analysed through Melanie Klein’s theory of maternity. Klein argues that an infant in the “paranoid-schizoid position”(during the first three months of life) splits its mother into both a good mother and a bad mother. When the infant deems the mother to be a persecutor, then it tries to control or harm the mother by projecting its own negative feelings towards her. Klein defines this process as “projective identification.” Jane’s hatred and aggression towards her bad mother, Mrs Reed, resembles Klein’s “projective identification.” According to Klein, the infant in the “depressive position”(after the paranoid-schizoid position) feels guilt and anxiety for the damage inflicted on its mother in the previous position, The infant goes through a mourning process for the loss of its positive object, and restores its mother as “a good and complete object.” At this moment of restoration, the infant successfully overcomes its own depressive position. In this novel, Jane experiences feelings of guilt for doing harm to her bad mother figure, and the normal mourning process then helps her to successfully overcome her depressive position. After restoring Rochester as an object of love and gratitude, Jane comes back to him, whom she sees as a prototype of her own lost mother.

Obsessional Neurosis, the Paranoid-Schizoid Position, and the Bourgeois Family in Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle

This paper is a psychoanalytic analysis of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle as an exploration of obsessional neurosis, the paranoid-schizoid position and the bourgeois family.

Social Media and Coronavirus: Paranoid-Schizoid Technology and Pandemic?

This article draws on the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein’s ‘paranoid-schizoid position’ to discuss some exemplary social media posts about the coronavirus. I argue that posts often express experiences, thoughts, and fantasies in a schematic manner. They reproduce a paranoid-schizoid logic by which particular views on the current crisis are articulated and different ones are negated. The Kleinian framework is supplemented with Lacan’s notion of the Discourse of the Hysteric. I argue that the examples discussed in this article are instances of hysteric modes of relating to an Other (e.g. the expert) that is allegedly withholding important information from the subject. Splitting is amplified by the technological functioning of social media themselves which split users along a paranoid-schizoid dynamic for purposes of surveillance, advertising and profit maximization. I conclude by outlining steps towards the Kleinian ‘depressive position’ both in relation to how we engage with COVID-19 and social media. The depressive position acknowledges both good and bad aspects of a given situation. I further show how it can be supplemented via the Lacanian Discourse of the Analyst which includes a commitment to the limits of knowledge, certainty, and prediction.

A Discussion of “‘When Reparation Is Felt to Be Impossible’: Persecutory Guilt and Breakdowns in Thinking and Dialogue about Race”

Jane Caflisch’s discussion (this issue) of white liberal guilt is recognized as a bold and ground-breaking exploration of how the Kleinian concepts of paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions may shed light on the question of reparation for racial injustice. I suggest that, in addition to persecutory and depressive guilt, melancholic guilt also operates in racist mind-sets, and constitutes the more serious obstacle to reparation. Guilt of this sort prompts defensive repetition, thereby perpetuating racist mind-sets and acts and taking one further and further from the possibility of reparation. On the other hand, the more normal interplay between persecutory and depressive guilt, which is illustrated through a clinical vignette, is seen as opening up a path to reparation. Brief vignettes are offered illustrating points about melancholic guilt and how a culture of facing rather than evading persecutory guilt enabled an opportunity for reparation to be recognized and used.

Sfumato De Las Imágenes De Mundo En Su Dinámica Actual. Contribuciones Humanísticas Para Una Suturación Narrativizante De La Coexistencia

This article presents an eidetic investigation that aimed at the production of a narrativizing sense of the coexistence, which is presented as a humanistic contribution to the suturing of the conjunctural emptiness of it. For this, six eidetic dimensions were brought to the front that are part of the shared objective world, and therefore are repetitive structures that make up the underlying continuity of the interruption of coexistence, aspecting the latter. Such dimensions, in the mode of eidetic succession-tension between Apollo-Dionysus, rational thought-magic thought, paranoid schizoid position-depressive position, polis-urbs, death-birth and leisure-weariness, are made up of various eidetic conjunctions-disjunctions developed in the text, and they emerge from the continuity-dispute between images of the technical and psychic-cultural world with its correlative mass society and urban tribal society.

Between thought and action: symbolization in depressive position and its external expressions

Aim. The paper will revisit nature of symbolization in depressive position with respect to its realization in external reality. Base for the analysis will be Hanna Segal paper Delusions and artistic creativity: some reflections on reading “The Spire” by William Golding (Segal, 1974/1988), enriched with findings she presented in her later paper Acting on phantasy and acting on desire (Segal, 1992/2007), context for the analysis will be provided by Kleinian psychoanalytic framework.
 Methods. Psychoanalysis core interest is thinking and thought formation. In the paper I will try to move this emphasis on examining pure thinking into exploration of mixture that thought and action create. I will therefore analyse on what tokens mind content can be put into action, and conversely how action is being incorporated into thought. I will perform the study using Hanna Segal interpretation of The Spire by William Golding, which she issued on 1974. I will also reach out to her other papers to broaden the interpretation, including the paper she wrote almost twenty years later on Festschrift for her colleague, philosopher Richard Wollheim (Segal, 1992/2007), that actually proposes the solid linkage between thinking and its expressions in the world. The study will be performed with reference to Kleinian psychoanalytic framework, it will be centred around object relation and anxieties the object arouses (paranoid schizoid and depressive positions), with respect to their impact on thought formation (symbolization, sublimation).
 Results and conclusions. Analysis of relationship between symbolisation and action enhances understanding of two main responses to depressive position: sublimation and maniac defences, for it explores the extent to which ego benefits/refuses to benefit from internal and external reality. While the rereading Segal interpretation of The Spire allows to spot how creative act enables capturing most difficult internal and external truths, it also reveals – when put in context of Wollheim’s concept of acting on phantasy and acting on desire- that maniac response is less a form of protection and more a direct attack on receptivity and penetrating exploration for their associations to primary scene.
 Cognitive value. Studying depressive symbolization as a vehicle for acting on either phantasy or desire reveals, that employment of behavioural component forces to revisit maniac defences in light of their actual aftermath in external world. Such refined view onto depressive defences further contributes to improved differentiation of symbolization in depressive position, for it puts under scrutiny relation between ego and performed action. It allows to recognize that in addition to symbol proper (formed by anxiety for object) and symbolic equation (defined by anxiety of object), there is also partly malformed form of symbol shaped by maniac defences (and so by absence of anxiety for object), which disfiguration is best examinable in changes to external reality it makes.

Politics of Fear versus Global Anxiety: A Critical Analysis of Recent US Anti-Immigration Policies from Psychoanalytic Perspectives

ABSTRACTApplying selected psychoanalytic constructs from Freud and Klein to recent pervasive rhetoric around anti-immigration in the United States, we conducted a critical discourse analysis of media and policy representations of immigrants in recent news coverage in the United States regarding the Trump Administration’s response to (1) asylum claims related to domestic violence and gang violence and (2) undocumented immigrants. We illustrate how feared bad object/immigrants are constructed alongside the imagined good object/nationalism, as exemplified by Trump’s motto – “Make America Great Again” (MAGA). We argue how this paranoid-schizoid position reifies racism veiled under nationalism and discuss how social workers could work together toward the depressive position re-imagining America-as-the-whole.

Transference‐focused Psychotherapy for Patients with Personality Disorders: Overview and Case Example with a Focus on the Use of Contracting

Transference‐focused psychotherapy (TFP) is a manualized treatment for patients with a personality disorder based on 18 months of once‐weekly or twice‐weekly therapy. TFP is suitable for publicly funded psychotherapy and private practice. Devised by Kernberg and colleagues, its conceptual framework is based on Kleinian theory of primitive defences in the paranoid schizoid position. A TFP ‘structural assessment’ is carried out before negotiating a treatment contract, which must be agreed before therapy can begin. Contracting addresses destructive acting‐out and isolative lifestyles, and requires a commitment to active engagement with therapy and its agreed aims. The therapist closely attends to relationships outside therapy and transference parallels. The goal is greater integration of the self and self‐object relations. In addition to changes in symptoms, TFP can lead to changes in patients’ defensive structures with concomitant shifts in personality structure, improved satisfaction in life, and fuller engagement in work and relationships. A case example is given of a patient with a withdrawn lifestyle. Her object relationships were interpreted as they unfolded in life outside therapy and in the transference, leading to personality structure changes which enabled her to be able to function successfully in work and in her personal relationships.