CFPS: Schools of Thought
What Is Psychoanalysis
Pine (1990) begins by quoting Pinchas Noy: “the uniqueness of psychoanalysis is in its metapsychology which is based on a multimodel theoretical system, i.e., a system composed of several theoretical models. In this respect it differs from almost all other contemporary schools in psychology and behavioral sciences, each one of which is based on a single and uniform model. The existence of these numerous models enables us to arrange clinical raw data in several alternate patterns, allowing the examination of each phenomenon from several points of view and the transfer of the focus of interest from one point of view to another, according to the specific clinical, experimental, or theoretical needs.” Noy compared the multimodel nature of psychoanalysis to line, which can be “understood as both waves and particles.”
Similarly, Pine writes that psychoanalysis developed in three waves, “drive psychology, ego psychology, and object relations theory — with the last producing an interest in the self (in contradistinction to the object) as well.” This evolution is in part based on “new modes or domains of observation: the use of free association and the couch, the turn to child analysis and then to infant and child observation, and the ‘widening scope’ of patients worked with in analysis later on.” This evolution is also based on “the roles of individual contributors, perhaps specifically attuned to one or another aspect of human function because of their personal life histories.”
The first two waves, drives and ego, can be seen as attempts “to recognize the biology of the organism in psychological theory. The individual is seen as starting with various biological givens.” Drive psychology began when Freud abandoned seduction theory and developed his theory of infantile sexuality. Ego psychology grew out of the awareness that drives alone were insufficient to explain the psychological apparatus. Drives can be seen in our urges which in turn lead to wishes and fantasies. The ego can be understood as the tripartite apparatus “from which grow capabilities for defense, adaptation, and reality testing. But biology alone cannot explain humans. If drives represent nature, object relations represent nurture.
“I would here propose that any behavior can be described from four functional points of view: that is, in relation to drive gratification, ego function, object relations, and self experience.”
Pine (1990) begins by quoting Pinchas Noy: “the uniqueness of psychoanalysis is in its metapsychology which is based on a multimodel theoretical system, i.e., a system composed of several theoretical models. In this respect it differs from almost all other contemporary schools in psychology and behavioral sciences, each one of which is based on a single and uniform model. The existence of these numerous models enables us to arrange clinical raw data in several alternate patterns, allowing the examination of each phenomenon from several points of view and the transfer of the focus of interest from one point of view to another, according to the specific clinical, experimental, or theoretical needs.” Noy compared the multimodel nature of psychoanalysis to line, which can be “understood as both waves and particles.”
Similarly, Pine writes that psychoanalysis developed in three waves, “drive psychology, ego psychology, and object relations theory — with the last producing an interest in the self (in contradistinction to the object) as well.” This evolution is in part based on “new modes or domains of observation: the use of free association and the couch, the turn to child analysis and then to infant and child observation, and the ‘widening scope’ of patients worked with in analysis later on.” This evolution is also based on “the roles of individual contributors, perhaps specifically attuned to one or another aspect of human function because of their personal life histories.”
The first two waves, drives and ego, can be seen as attempts “to recognize the biology of the organism in psychological theory. The individual is seen as starting with various biological givens.” Drive psychology began when Freud abandoned seduction theory and developed his theory of infantile sexuality. Ego psychology grew out of the awareness that drives alone were insufficient to explain the psychological apparatus. Drives can be seen in our urges which in turn lead to wishes and fantasies. The ego can be understood as the tripartite apparatus “from which grow capabilities for defense, adaptation, and reality testing. But biology alone cannot explain humans. If drives represent nature, object relations represent nurture.
“I would here propose that any behavior can be described from four functional points of view: that is, in relation to drive gratification, ego function, object relations, and self experience.”
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Fred Pine, 1990, “The Four Psychologies of Psychoanalysis,” Drive, Ego, Object, And Self: A Synthesis For Clinical Work.
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