OEDIPAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF PRE-OEDIPAL DEVELOPMENT: IDENTIFICATION.
Item
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Title
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OEDIPAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF PRE-OEDIPAL DEVELOPMENT: IDENTIFICATION.
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Identifier
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AAI8222927
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identifier
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8222927
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Creator
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BERNSTEIN, BARBARA A.
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Contributor
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Herbert Nechin
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Date
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1982
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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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The question addressed in this study is: to what extent are a girl's pre-oedipal experiences and developing characteristics discernible in development at the oedipal stage. The question is addressed by looking specifically at the nature of the developing indentifications with mother at these two phases of development. If, as believed, pre-oedipal experience shapes oedipal experience and development at the time of the oedipal conflict, then it should be possible to postdict from the structure and functioning of an oedipal age child to her pre-oedipal, separation-individuation experience.;This was accomplished by compiling a developmental profile based upon psychological testing of the study child, "Helen", and her parents as well as observations in school and interviews with parents and teachers. The contents of the profile form the basis of speculations (i.e., postdictions) about Helen's experience during the practicing and rapprochement subphases of separation-individuation, with specific emphasis on the role of identifications with mother. The postdictions were then compared to observational data collected during Helen's separation-individuation development. The extent to which the postdictions are/are not corroborated by the earlier data supports/fails to support the hypothesis that the unique course of a child's separation-individuation development can be discerned from a study of that child during the oedipal phase.;The findings of this study indicate that it is plausible to reconstruct the essential features of a child's pre-oedipal experience from her oedipal functioning with a fair degree of accuracy. However, as anticipated, there was no one-to-one correspondence between events/experiences of the oedipal period and events/experiences of the pre-oedipal period. Development does not consist of exact replications of earlier events, but of the integration of earlier experience with succeeding experiences, tasks, and developmental concerns. It was found that the impact of pre-oedipal experience is integrated into a child's personal history in a manner which reverberates through subsequent development and is discernible during the oedipal phase.
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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.
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Program
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Psychology
