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Berkeley Psychoanalytic Society
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The Structure and Function of Part Objects

Saturday, October 1, 2022 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

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Speaker

Richard Rusbridger

A distinctive feature of Kleinian approaches in psychoanalysis is their interest, which developed from Melanie Klein’s work with children, in early states of mind, which she called ‘primitive,’ These frequently involve part object relating, in which a person relates, not to whole people, but to parts of the self and of others. I am going to talk about the structure and function of part object relating. Babies begin life relating to parts of their mother’s or caretaker’s body – her face, breast, eyes, etc. – rather than to her as a whole person. These physical parts are rapidly invested with psychological significance. Gradually a baby’s awareness widens. But this earliest mode of relating remains available to be used when it is needed. How and when this happens is the subject of this paper. This is not primarily a clinical or technical paper, though I do bring some clinical material to illustrate my argument.

SPEAKER

Richard Rusbridger

Richard Rusbridger is a training analyst and a child analyst with the British Psychoanalytical Society, in private practice in London. He read Music and English at Cambridge. He worked as a social worker in psychiatry, and trained as a child psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic before training at the Institute of Psychoanalysis in London. He is an Honorary Reader at University College, London. He has written papers on psychoanalytic theory, and on psychoanalysis and music, and has edited the collected papers of Edna O’Shaughnessy and (with Priscilla Roth) of Elizabeth Spillius.

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