Synthesis Sunday: Diving Into Winnicotts's Theory of the Parent-Infant Relationship

Whoo-ee. I haven't made it through the first sentence of this article without having to reach for my dictionary. I'm thinking this will be a long synthesis - mainly because I am not all that up on psychoanalytical paradigm jargon.

As I scan through the article that I've selected, (citation below if you want to read this with me) I think my new first step is to scan through, identify all the terminology that is unfamiliar to me, and then take the time to define that terminology so I can then read the article with some context of what is being said. 

Now, admitting that I don't know what is being said is a HUGELY humiliating thing for me to do. I pride myself on my intelligence and my mastery of vocabulary and of music therapy concepts. When I come across the world of psychoanalytic music therapy, however, my mind starts to shut down because I just do not understand what is being said. These are the times when my behaviorist/humanistic/sensory integration background come to the forefront in a way that just takes over.

I am trying to expand my views and knowledge, and I feel that Winnicott is important for this evolution, so off to a vocabulary list!

I am going to scan the article and write down every word, term, or concept that I am unfamiliar with so I can define it and try to gain some context. Here I go...
  • psycho-analytic transference - I have a vague idea of transference, but what makes this psycho-analytic - are there other types??
  • ego-control
  • alterative interpretations
  • terms of projection (only in the second paragraph here)
  • mechanisms of repression
  • Freudian term - primary repression
  • "Primitive Emotional Development"
  • traumata - plural for something trauma-related??
  • An entire sentence - "It may even happen that he is able to accept what is good in the environment as a projection of the simple and stable going-on-being elements that derive from his own inherited potential." Do you ever have moments when you can understand each word individually, but not when they are put together??
  • recognition of a true "not-me"
  • pleasure-principle to the reality-principal
  • psychical system
  • manifestations of discharge
  • psychical detachment (almost to the end of page two - ugh!)
  • id-forces
  • pregenital sexuality (definitely a Freudian framework)
  • instinct tension
  • anxiety about annihilation
  • primitive anxieties
  • first stages of mental organization (splitting, projection, and introjection)
  • inherited potential (I'm getting through this scanning a bit more quickly now - less jargon and new concepts and more language I recognize!)
  • disintegration
  • psychosomatic existence
  • psyche indwelling in the soma
  • orgiastic functioning of the erotogenic zones
  • defusion
  • hiding of the core of the personality
  • projective identification
  • parturition
The end of pass #1. Lots of terminology to look up and try to understand. Now, I do know what some of these things mean, but I want a better understanding, so it is time to hit the dictionary and my psychology texts to seek some more knowledge.

So, diving into Winnicott seems to be an interesting evolutionary step for me this year - I'm not ever certain about Freud and his thoughts about things, but forcing myself into this sort of thought with a 21st century, behavioristic, humanistic, and sensory integrative type philosophy and practice format will enrich my understanding of what others are saying to me about all this stuff. I know there is important information here for me, but trying to figure it out may take a very long time.

Sigh.

Off to the dictionary.

Winnicott, D.W. (1960). The Theory of the Parent-Infant Relationship1. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 41:585-595

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