79 research outputs found
Mødre med en borderline-personlighedsforstyrrelse: -et teoretisk speciale med en psykodynamisk forståelse af forældrekompetence hos mødre, hvis personlighed er præget af en borderline-personlighedsforstyrrelse
No full textDet terapeutiske forældreskab: En empirisk undersøgelse af hvordan forældre til tidligt moderligt depriverede børn kan fremme børnenes psykosociale udvikling.
No full textTrøstespisning: Speciale om udviklingen af trøstespisning i et neuropsykologisk og psykodynamisk perspektiv
No full textThis paper aims to answer the question: ”How can one understand the development of comfort eating with respects to the development of affect regulation mechanisms and general eating patterns according to a psychodynamic and neuropsychological viewpoint?”. Throughout the paper we argue that the highest aim for the development of the child’s affect regulation abilities compares to what authors of the theory of mentalization call mentalized affectivity. An inability to reach this ability can be viewed as a fault of some part of the early development, and we wonder whether comfort eating can be understood as just that. The paper therefore focuses on the affective development from birth to the age of 5 in order to answer the before mentioned question. Throughout the analysis we argue that somewhat inappropriate ways for the parents to interact with their child is one of the primary reasons for a child’s inability to develop more advanced affect regulation strategies and more flexible ways of using them. Therefore comfort eating – which can be understood more or less as a less advanced affect regulation strategy, which can be used more or less flexibly – can be seen as a potential result of improper parenting skills.The method used to try and answer whether comfort eating can be understood as described is one of comparison between existing scientific results on the area and modern theories of the development of affect regulation. First the scientific literature with relevance to different aspects of comfort eating are presented, afterward which different theories of the development of affect regulation are presented.In analyzing how proper and improper development of affect regulation compares with comfort eating behavior, we argue that comfort eating can be neurologically related to certain unregulated or inactive parts of the brain, such as the amygdala that controls primitive affective states, the cingulate cortex that regulates amygdala and contains the more advanced affective states, and parts of the præfrontal kortex among which the orbitofrontal kortex normally has an overall regulating role. All these parts of the brain are related to emotional or stress related reactions and seem to be affected by some of the same hormones and neurotransmitters that induce food intake. These substances include glucocorticoids, insulin and leptin. Altogether there are reasons to believe that the neurological basis for affective processes and the regulation of them are somewhat intertwined with processes relating to food intake. Therefore it seems that we can rightly assume that comfort eating can be understood as related to affect regulation on a neuropsychological basis.On a psychodynamic basis it seems that a person tendency to comfort eat can be related to food being somewhat associated with the mother. This association is established quickly from birth and the interaction between the mother and the child during feeding sessions gives us reason to think that food represents of idea of the motherly care and affect regulating contact with the child. This association could be thought to continue into adulthood and be of importance if the person is not himself able to regulate his affective states – then he is able to access the mothers regulating characteristics by comfort eating instead. The theory of three modes of functioning can be further used to explain a persons need for his regulation strategy to be experienced as an active behavior, rather than a merely mental strategy. The modes also explain how a person could potentially associate comfort eating with a way of controlling his affective states or “fill up” an experience of inner emptiness.Lastly we discuss whether it is reasonable to try to understand comfort eating as we have done throughout the pater. We discuss whether comfort eating is actually a regulation of affect or a regulation of experience and these two are different or aspects of the same process. We also discuss alternative viewpoints on our understanding of comfort eating, such as whether culture doesn’t play a large part in various disorders eating patterns such as comfort eating.We conclude that comfort can indeed be understood as a result of a somewhat faulty development of affect regulating abilities, although we argue that comfort eating is a complex phenomenon and needs to be understood in a broader perspective than just a neuropsychological and psychodynamic viewpoint
Breaks and sibling figures in child psychotherapy
No full textThis chapter focuses on an unexpected windfall of the investigation: the linking of breaks to hostile sibling figures in a child’s mind. It explores core themes in child psychotherapy with children who have suffered early abuse and neglect. The chapter investigates possible links between breaks in the time structure of therapy and such core themes. The chapter examines development of a transparent and systematic methodology for the psychoanalytic case study by application of a rigorous qualitative research method. A main finding of the study was a characteristic pattern of subjective core themes running as a red thread through all Samantha’s relationships, not only inside the therapy, but also in early infancy and her daily life concurrent to therapy. The specific pattern of core themes probably reflects the fact that Samantha early in her life had suffered severe neglect and maltreatment
Barnet i den ikke-traditionelle familie: Et psykoanalytisk studie af den homoseksuelle familiekonstellation
No full textThe present thesis is a psychoanalytic theoretic reflection and multiple case study of non-traditional families. The intended aims of the study where, 1) to perform a systematic exploration of core features of already existing empirical material on the subject, 2) to perform a psychoanalytical and particularly object relations theoretical reflection on homosexual families and 3) to investigate qualitative case material on homosexual parents and their children’s fantasies and conception of their unique family constellation, in the context of the two previous chapters. The qualitative research data consisted mainly of three different types of material; 1) clinical case material from a child psychotherapy case and work with the lesbian parents as presented by Corbett (2001); 2) a infant observation study of a single, gay man’s daughter as presented by Moskowitz (2010); and 3) an interview study of homosexual parents as presented by Friedman (2007). The analytic strategy was developed through the thesis first two chapters and the phenomenological deductive analysis Template Analysis was carried out. The exploration of the empirical studies has only found few if any difference between children of heterosexual and homosexual parents and the studies suggest that children raised by same-sex parents fare equally well to children raised by heterosexual parents. The empirical studies did highlight features of homosexual families that could benefit from further qualitative research such as the parent-child relationship, attachment and separation. Object relations theory including the Oedipus complex and the process of triangulation proved to be useful in the study of the child’s psychosexual development in homosexual families and the family’s fantasies about their own family constellation. The completed analysis of the various data gave a valuable and rich insight into the unique challenges of homosexual families. The thematic approach to the data showed to be very useful as a baseline but leaved room for the themes to evolve through the use of them. The themes that seemed to be appearing often were the conscious and unconscious knowledge and fantasies of the donor. The fantasies were influenced of the parent’s grief and the child’s Oedipal situations. The Oedipal situation was in turn influenced by the parent’s sexual orientation and somehow the Oedipus complex seemed to be even more complex. This thesis underlines the impotency of this subject and therefore puts foreword a suggestion for further research. <br/
- …
