Sitting in a cafe, I noticed myself drawn towards someone else in the cafe who happened to remind me of my first love 45 years ago. I instantly banished and shut down my thoughts, noticing that my creative flow instantly shut down as well. I tried to recover my original feeling but could not. Sitting with my thoughts as I ate my breakfast I became aware… “oh, this is the stuff of psychoanalysis, inner conflict.” Part of me was drawn to that person I glimpsed in the cafe, and another part of me felt threatened by my feelings of attraction. My defensive system instantly shut down my feelings of attraction, leaving me momentarily numb. Opposing impulses, internal conflict, and defenses is the raw stuff of psychoanalysis… and one of it’s many contributions to psychotherapy in general. I found myself musing about how this contribution squares with current day attachment-based psychotherapy. And, of course, it didn’t escape my notice that I coped with the emotional conflict through the well-worn defensive pathway of “intellectualization.” (to be continued)
About Orin Borders, Ph.D.
Orin Borders, Ph.D, a psychologist in private practice with a long standing interest in the Marriage-Of-Opposites, is the originator on this site.
