Monday, October 17, 2011, 8:15 pm
NYU Langone Medical Center - Alumni Hall A

31st Annual Maurice R. Friend Lecture

Aspects of Early Mental Life in Adult Clinical Material: Convergence and Divergence in British Object Relations Theory and Models from Infant Research

Moderator: Jack Pelaccio, MD
Presenter: Tanya Weisman, MD
Discussants: M. Nasir Ilahi, LLM, and Anne Erreich, PhD

Synopsis:
Both British object relations theory and psychoanalytic models that derive from infant research privilege the mental life of infants in accounting for development and for various transference manifestations in adult analytic material. Object relations theorists, without recourse to systematic infant research, have emphasized a fine-grained analysis of shifts in patients’ experience of the analyst fueled by anxieties assumed to originate early in the infant’s life. Meanwhile, analysts who have been influenced by infant research also focus on “ways of being with another,” especially in the transference, as specific modes of relatedness, derived from systematic research on constructs such as attunement and mentalization.

We will explore areas of convergence and divergence in how infant mentation is viewed from these two perspectives. Our interest is not in privileging one form of data over the other. Rather, we would like to understand better how much disagreement there actually is beyond notational differences, and what each data set contributes to our understanding of the influence of early mentation as it lives on in the adult mind.

Clinical material will be provided as the basis for this inquiry. We hope to generate a lively colloquy among audience, presenter, and discussants.