American physician
Edith Jacobson
(
German
:
Edith Jacobssohn
; September 10, 1897 ? December 8, 1978) was a German
psychoanalyst
. Her major contributions to psychoanalytic thinking dealt with the development of the sense of
identity
and
self-esteem
and with an understanding of
depression
and
psychosis
. She was able to integrate the
tripartite structural model of classic psychoanalysis
with the
theory of object relations
into a revised
drive theory
. Thereby, she increased the treatment possibilities of the more disturbed
pre-oedipal
patients.
Biography
[
edit
]
Born into a
Jewish
family to a physician father and musician mother,
[1]
Edith Jacobson was a
physician
and later she became also a
psychoanalyst
. In 1922 she received her medical degree, after she attended medical school at
Jena
,
Heidelberg
, and at
Munich
. From 1922 until 1925 she did her pediatric internship at the University Hospital in Heidelberg. She develops interest in
psychoanalysis
during that period. In her internship she observed instances of
childhood sexuality
. She began training at the
Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute
in 1925 and her analyst was
Otto Fenichel
.
[2]
In 1930, she became a member of the Berlin Psychoanalytic Society and was soon presenting papers that dealt with her interest in the problems of the
superego
and its development.
[3]
In 1934 she became a training analyst at the Berlin Institute.
In 1935, the
Nazis
imprisoned Jacobson because she refused to divulge information about a patient. In 1938, she became ill with
Graves' disease
and
diabetes
; while hospitalised in
Leipzig
, she escaped to
Czechoslovakia
.
[3]
Shortly after her escape, she emigrated to the U.S., where she soon became a member of the
New York Psychoanalytic Society
.
[4]
In the U.S., she became a training analyst and a teacher.
[2]
Jacobson's theoretical and clinical work was about ego and
superego
functioning, the processes of identification underlying the development of ego and superego, and the role of the ego and superego in depression. In her writings, she tries to construct an overarching developmental perspective. This perspective would do justice to drives and to real
objects
and their
representations
in building up the ego and superego. Jacobson was interested in the fate of self-representations in depressive and
psychotic
patients. She introduced the concept of self-representation with
Heinz Hartmann
. In 1964's
The Self and the Object World
, she presented a revised drive theory.
[2]
Revised drive theory
[
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]
Jacobson was the first theorist to attempt to integrate
drive theory
with structural and
object relations theory
in a comprehensive, developmental synthesis, and her influence on subsequent work in this area has been profound.
[2]
She built on the contributions of
Anna Freud
,
Heinz Hartmann
,
Rene Spitz
, and
Margaret Mahler
. In 1964, she wrote
The Self and the Object World
, in which she revised
Sigmund Freud
's theory about the
psychosexual phases in the development
, and his conceptualizations of
id, ego, and superego
.
General concepts of the revised drive theory
[
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]
In Freud's point of view, drives were
innate
, while the
ego psychologists
emphasized the influence of the
environment
. Jacobson found a way to bridge the gap between those points of view. According to Jacobson,
biology
and experience mutually influence each other, and
interact
throughout the development.
[5]
In accordance with Hartmann, Jacobson proposed that the
instinctual
drives are not innate ‘givens’, but biological
predisposed
, innate potentials. These potentials get their distinctive features in the context of the early experiences of the child. From birth on, experiences will be registered as pleasurable (‘feeling good’) or unpleasurable (‘feeling bad’).
[6]
A balance in subjective feeling
states
in the early experiences of the child will contribute to the harmonious development of the
libido
and
aggressive drive
. The libido will emerge from experiences of feeling good and normally there will be less aggression. However, if early experiences are particularly frustrating, the aggressive drive might disturb the normal development.
[7]
The libido helps integrating images of good and bad objects and good and bad self. Aggression, on the other hand, facilitates separation and establishing different images of self and others. Libido and aggression cannot function without each other. Libido promotes pulling together, and aggression moving out. Libido and aggression are necessary to build a stable
identity
by integrating experiences from the environment.
[8]
Jacobson articulated that experiences are
subjective
, which means that there is no good mothering, but only mothering that feels good to a particular baby. It is all about ‘
affective
matching’ between mother and child, in which factors like baby's
temperament
, fit or misfit between baby and mother and the mother's capacity to respond adequately to the baby's needs, play an important role.
[7]
Development of the child
[
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]
The early psychic state of a child is undifferentiated, with no clear boundaries between the inner self and the outer world. Libido and aggression are not experienced as distinct drives.
[9]
As a newborn child cannot differentiate between self and others, the earliest images are fused and confused. Jacobson proposed ? in agreement with
Rene Spitz
? that experiences, whether they are good or bad, will
accumulate
in a child's
psyche
. These earliest images form the groundwork for later subjective feelings of self and others and will serve as a
filter
through which one will interpret new experiences.
[7]
At the age of approximately 6 months a baby is capable of differentiating between self and others.
[7]
Gradually, the
aggressive
and
libidinal
components also become more differentiated, which leads to new structural systems: the
ego and the superego
.
[10]
In the second year, there is a gradual transition to
individuation
and ego
autonomy
, in which the representations of the child become more realistic.
[11]
The child discovers its own identity and learns to differentiate wishful from realistic self and object images. The Superego develops over a long time and becomes consolidated during
adolescence
.
[12]
In normal development, there is a balance between libido and aggression, which lead to a mature differentiation between self and other. However, a lack of balance between libido and aggression could lead to weak boundaries between self and other, which can be observed in
psychotic patients
.
[13]
With regard to the development of the Ego and Superego Jacobson stressed the role of
parental influence
as crucial.
[14]
Parental love is the best guarantee for a normal ego and superego development, but also frustrations and parental demands make a significant contribution to the development of an effective, independently functioning and self-reliant Ego.
[15]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- The Self and the Object World
, (1964).
- Psychotic Conflict and Reality
, (1967).
- Depression: comparative studies of normal, neurotic, and psychotic conditions
, (1971).
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Beatriz Markman Reubins,
Pioneers of Child Psychoanalysis: Influential Theories and Practices in Healthy Child Development
, Karnac Books (2014), p. 203
- ^
a
b
c
d
Edith Jacobson at answers.com
- ^
a
b
Edith Jacobson at Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing
- ^
Tuttman,
Edith Jacobson's major contributions to psychoanalytic theory of development
, pg. 136
- ^
Mitchell & Black,
Freud and Beyond
, pg. 49
- ^
Jacobson,
The Self and the Object World
, pg. 11
- ^
a
b
c
d
Mitchell & Black,
Freud and Beyond
, pp. 50
- ^
Mitchell & Black,
Freud and Beyond
, pp. 52
- ^
Tuttman,
Edith Jacobson’s major contributions to psychoanalytic theory of development
, pp. 136, 139.
- ^
Tuttman,
Edith Jacobson’s major contributions to psychoanalytic theory of development
, pp. 137
- ^
Tuttman,
Edith Jacobson’s major contributions to psychoanalytic theory of development
, pp. 140
- ^
Jacobson,
The Self and the Object World
, pg. 171
- ^
Tuttman,
Edith Jacobson's major contributions to psychoanalytic theory of development
, pp. 137-139.
- ^
Tuttman,
Edith Jacobson’s major contributions to psychoanalytic theory of development
, pp. 141-142
- ^
Jacobson,
The Self and the Object World
, pg. 55
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- Jacobson, E. (1964).
The Self and the Object World
. London: the Hogarth Press.
- Mitchell, S.A., and Black, M.J. (1995).
Freud and Beyond
. New York: Basic Books.
- Tuttman, S. (1985).
Edith Jacobson’s major contributions to psychoanalytic theory of development
. The American journal of Psychoanalysis, 45, 135?147.
External links
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