The Shadow of the Object: Psychoanalysis of the Unthought Known

Christopher Bollas

Columbia University Press, 1987 - Psychology - 283 pages

Basing his view on the object relations theories of the "British School" of psychoanalysis, Christopher Bollas examines the human subject's memories of its earliest experiences (during infancy and childhood) of the object, whether it be mother, father, or self. He explains in well-written and non-technical language how the object can affect the child, or "cast in shadow," without the child being able to process this relation through mental representations of language.

Contents

• The transformational object: 13
• The spirit of the object as the hand of fate: 30
• The self as object: 41
• to dream: 64
• The trisexual: 82
• MOODS: 99
• Loving hate: 117
• Normotic illness: 135
• Extractive introjection: 157
• The liar: 173
• The psychoanalyst and the hysteric: 189
• Expressive uses of the countertransference: 200
• Self analysis and the countertransference: 236
• Ordinary regression to dependence: 256
• early considerations: 277
• Notes: 285

About the author

Christopher Bollas is Director of Education at the Austen Riggs Center of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Shadow of the Object: Psychoanalysis of the Unthought Known; The Shadow of the Object: Psychoanalysis of the Unthought Known, Christopher Bollas
• Author: Christopher Bollas
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Columbia University Press, 1987
• ISBN: 0231066279, 9780231066273
• Length: 283 pages
• Subjects: Psychology / Movements / Psychoanalysis