Response -ability and response -inability within the therapeutic relationship.
Item
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Title
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Response -ability and response -inability within the therapeutic relationship.
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Identifier
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AAI3187410
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identifier
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3187410
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Creator
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Efrat, Dvora Boubli.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Steven B. Tuber
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Date
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2005
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Clinical
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Abstract
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Theoretical in nature, this dissertation explores an aspect of the therapeutic relationship related to the notion of responsibility, which, in the present context is looked at as dynamically potent by effecting a shift in emphasis from the moral to the dialogical characteristics this notion carries. Toward that end, the study presented here utilizes clinical and theoretical findings in psychoanalytic practice, theory, and infant research, Emanuel Levinas' notion of responsibility, and Wilfred Bion's conception of human psychic development.;"Response-ability" is understood as an extension of very early experiences in the realm of relatedness, and communication between mother and child. Furthermore, it is seen as a basic emotion in which both child and parent are mobilized emotionally in verbal and nonverbal communicative interactions.;The infant's capacity to call his mother into attention through vocalizations, body language, and projections is understood as the child's capacity to respond adequately to his internal needs and stimuli. The mother's capacity to read into her child's appeal and to respond adequately to its interpolation is the manifestation of a specific emotional connection established through a back and forth dialogue between the two. Implicit and necessary to such exchange (as to any exchange), is the conscious-unconscious realization of separateness. The back and forth movement between mother and child gradually introduces the idea of "Otherness" and the capacity to negotiate each aspect of the connection well enough allows for emotional and cognitive growth.;However, when the mutual meeting of the child and his environment presents with difficulties in the interrelated dynamics of appealing-responding-differentiating , the child's psychological growth might be stalled and the establishment of a productive relationship between parent and child compromised. The dynamics of appealing-responding-differentiating function as an emotional link that is active throughout life between people and present in the therapeutic relationship.;Based on these premises, this dissertation is proposing a new construct, the "(RE) link." It is composed of three elements---(Q) for questioning/appealing, (R) for responding, (Df) for differentiating---and is meant to highlight transferential-countertransferential dynamics, which are illustrated by discussing the myth of Oedipus as a clinical case.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
