Some Reflections on the Use and Meaning of Conflict in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
Keywords:
conflicto, teoría, material clínico, investigación conceptualAbstract
In this work I present some reflections on the concept of conflict in contemporary psychoanalysis, and more especially in European psychoanalysis within which, however, this concept as such does not seem to arouse particular interest. In fact, I do not recall that it has been the object of any theoretical examinations recently. This does not necessarily mean that the concept has been rejected or substituted; at most, as I shall mention later, some preconflictual stages of development have been hypothesized. The concept of conflict is generally implicit in analytical work and in the subsequent conceptualization, and is used - as happens with many other concepts - with very different and at times diverging meanings, both by the various schools of thought and within the same school itself. These notes will be accompanied by a clinical example that will attempt to illustrate some of the possible choices of the analyst
at work concerning the use of the concept of conflict.
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