Madness, badness and immaturity: some conceptual issues in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy

Contrasting pairs of terms, for example, 'mergedness' and 'separateness,' play an organizing role in many versions of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. These pairs are meant to define two contrasts: between maturity and immaturity, and between psychic health and ps...

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Main Author: Harcourt, E
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Johns Hopkins University Press 2016
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author Harcourt, E
author_facet Harcourt, E
author_sort Harcourt, E
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description Contrasting pairs of terms, for example, 'mergedness' and 'separateness,' play an organizing role in many versions of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. These pairs are meant to define two contrasts: between maturity and immaturity, and between psychic health and psychopathology. It is argued that this is too much weight for any terminology to bear. However, it follows not that we should abandon the terminology, but seek a proper understanding of what it means. It is argued that the contrast these terminologies primarily define is an ethical one, and the ideals of human relatedness they embody is compared to similar ideals in Aristotle, Iris Murdoch, and Kant. Along the way the paper attacks the claim that certain kinds of psychopathology are common to normal infants and ill adults.
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spelling oxford-uuid:32989bc8-00e9-43cc-807d-c77bc1fb7c622024-09-13T10:12:12ZMadness, badness and immaturity: some conceptual issues in psychoanalysis and psychotherapyJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:32989bc8-00e9-43cc-807d-c77bc1fb7c62EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordJohns Hopkins University Press2016Harcourt, EContrasting pairs of terms, for example, 'mergedness' and 'separateness,' play an organizing role in many versions of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. These pairs are meant to define two contrasts: between maturity and immaturity, and between psychic health and psychopathology. It is argued that this is too much weight for any terminology to bear. However, it follows not that we should abandon the terminology, but seek a proper understanding of what it means. It is argued that the contrast these terminologies primarily define is an ethical one, and the ideals of human relatedness they embody is compared to similar ideals in Aristotle, Iris Murdoch, and Kant. Along the way the paper attacks the claim that certain kinds of psychopathology are common to normal infants and ill adults.
spellingShingle Harcourt, E
Madness, badness and immaturity: some conceptual issues in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy
title Madness, badness and immaturity: some conceptual issues in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy
title_full Madness, badness and immaturity: some conceptual issues in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy
title_fullStr Madness, badness and immaturity: some conceptual issues in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy
title_full_unstemmed Madness, badness and immaturity: some conceptual issues in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy
title_short Madness, badness and immaturity: some conceptual issues in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy
title_sort madness badness and immaturity some conceptual issues in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy
work_keys_str_mv AT harcourte madnessbadnessandimmaturitysomeconceptualissuesinpsychoanalysisandpsychotherapy