Comments on the Clinical Analysis of Anxiety and Depressive Affect
- 1 April 1990
- journal article
- case report
- Published by Taylor & Francis in The Psychoanalytic Quarterly
- Vol. 59 (2) , 226-248
- https://doi.org/10.1080/21674086.1990.11927271
Abstract
In listening to clinical material, the analyst frequently has to decide among several apparently valid avenues of investigation. The author examines an aspect of the way he chooses among technical alternatives. His perceptions of an analysand's motivations are influenced by two complementary affect-defense configurations: inhibition in response to anxiety and enactment of wishful fantasy in response to depressive affect. These conceptualizations act as deep structures at the base of his clinical thinking and give direction to his analytic activity. A connection is suggested between the choice to analyze one or another specific affect-defense configuration and the sequential unfolding of tolerable frustrations and gratifications for the analysand.Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Depressive AffectThe Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 1977