What's a Good Object to Do? - PsyBC

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10 Neil J. Skolnick ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ ongoing systems imbued with their own energy, rather than discrete, singular entities. An ego (or self), for Fairbairn, 4 is what the ego does in concert with an object and an accompanying affect tie. For him, ego, object, and energy are inseparable and inextricable and are spoken of disjointedly only for linguistic clarity. What are internalized, then, for Fairbairn, are neither good nor bad objects, but good or bad object relationships, including the ego/self, the object, and the affective tie between the two. An ego cannot exist without reference to the objects, both internal or external, that structure it and perpetuate its essence. To interpret, then, becomes a useful cognitive exercise, but change itself becomes a problem of object relationships. To restate the title of this paper, “What’s a Good Object to Do” I would add, “What’s a Good Object to Do, in Interaction with a Patient’s Internal and External Selfobject Configurations That Will Bring into Being Modified Object Relationships Leading to Psychic Growth and Change” The provision of a good object, then, requires a dynamic interplay between analyst and patient. No longer is the analyst a detached imparter of wise, timely mutagenic interpretations. He or she is an active engager of the patient’s self in an ongoing constructive process. He or she is a relational analyst resuscitated from Fairbairn’s (1952) opus. It follows, then, that an important aim of the good object in the therapeutic process is to provide the patient with an opportunity to identify with the analyst’s self as he or she analyzes. This course of action I call dynamic identification. Dynamic identification needs to be distinguished from identifications with static traits, preferences, sensibilities, or ideographic qualities of the analyst’s character, although these sometimes enter the mix. By dynamic identification I am referring to unearthing and making one’s own the psychic processes, both conscious and unconscious, that an analyst engages in when relating to the patient in the analytic space. The good object provides something unique. In addition to the standard activities of labeling distortions, unearthing unconscious material, and providing interpretations, the good object engages with the patient in new ways of being, repeatedly, over time. The interaction with the analyst becomes coterminous with the patient’s expanded ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ 4 In my opinion Fairbairn’s use of the term ego was similar to Freud’s earlier (prestructural model), more encompassing meaning of ego as the center of selfexpression.
What’s a Good Object to Do 11 ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ self. The analyst’s analyzing-ways-of-being, both cognitively and affectively, becomes structured into a patient’s expanded and expanding self, each participant retaining his or her autonomous uniqueness. Expanded, more flexible, adaptive, and endurable selves are spun out and tried out. Over time, patients accumulate new ways of being with others woven and textured into the patients’ existing dynamic structures. A patient who struggled with sustaining a whole object/integrated psychic experience remarked to me at termination, “You certainly were not always the best analyst, but you helped me tremendously and for that I am grateful. I can now tolerate imperfection in myself and others without plunging into hopeless despair.” Dynamic identifications with the analyst are infinite in nature and will typically, although not exclusively, concern themselves with the particular trouble spots that impede a patient’s pursuit of satisfaction and pleasure. Of crucial importance is that the analysis provide an arena in which these trouble spots can emerge in the interaction. They surface in ways we alternately, depending on theoretical preference, label transference, transference–countertransference interaction, acting out, acting in, enacting, or a search for archaic and mature self–object provisions, to name a few. For example, if one is working with a person who struggles with containment of overwhelming, intolerable negative affect, the patient will identify with the many ways the analyst demonstrates an ability to contain. Interpretations may contribute to the process, but they are not sufficient, being more or less a cognitive exercise and rarely mutative. The patient needs to observe and actively participate in an actual, fully experienced interaction with the containing analyst, who variously struggles, stumbles, survives, accepts reparations, remains calm, or loses and recovers calm, to name a few of the genuine activities of containing. This interaction might also include the process participated in when the analyst makes a mistake and recovers from it without becoming defensive or inauthentic. We can extend these experiences to include most activities of the analyst, so that we have, for example, the working-through analyst; the forgiving, integrated analyst; the modulating analyst; the analyst who struggles with conflict; the analyst who becomes angry and recovers; the fallible analyst; and so forth. For dynamic identification to happen requires of the analyst concentrated devotion and an unwavering commitment to venture with the patient as a dyad to wherever the patient leads and regardless
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