Steps in the Development of an Object-relations Theory of the Personality, Fairbairn (1949)

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Misc. Index

Brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Book, Howard — How to Practice Brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (1998) Gabbard Neuroscience and Psychoanalysis Rethinking Therapeutic Action Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (2010) McWillians, Nancy Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2004) Modell,  Arnold Reflections on Metaphor and Affects Shedler, Jonathan The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (2010) The Tyranny of Time: How Long Does Effective Therapy Really Take? (2020) That Was Then, This Is Now (2022) Wachtel, Paul Therapeutic Communication (2011)
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The mammalian brain continuously and automatically makes associations. Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux gives the example of a rabbit that encounters a fox at a specific watering hole and barely escapes. The watering hole and the fox are now associated in the rabbit’s brain and connected together by fear. If the rabbit visits the watering hole again, it will automatically think about the fox and feel afraid. Related associations join to form schemas — that is, internal working models of ourselves and others. Imagine a young girl we’ll call Jasmine who repeatedly gets criticized by her parents for expressing an opinion. This experience evokes feelings of shame. Like the rabbit that comes to associate the watering hole with (physical) danger, Jasmine comes to associate expressing her opinion with (social) danger. She, in other words, comes to develop a schema that holds that it is unsafe to express her opinion with others. Like the associations that form them, schemas are originally adaptiv...
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Schizoid Factors in the Personality, Fairbairn (1940)

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