When Theories Touch by J. Ellman Steven;

When Theories Touch by J. Ellman Steven;

Author:J. Ellman, Steven;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge


It is of mild historic interest to note that the term “internal saboteur” was a term from the cultural influence of the Second World War.

As one can see from this extract, for Fairbairn each internalized object is part of an ego structure that is tied to the central ego. These structures might be compared to the ego (central ego), id (libidinal ego), and internal saboteur (which involves several structures), but, for Fairbairn, each structure is a dynamic ego-structure “assuming a dynamic pattern in relation to one another” (ibid., p. 171). There is first an original ego, which, after repression takes place, is called the central ego. Repression of the bad object leads to the formation of a libidinal ego and an internal saboteur. The libidinal ego contains the exciting object(s) and the internal saboteur contains the rejecting object(s). In Fairbairn’s theory, parts of the central ego are conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The internal saboteur and the libidinal ego are both unconscious.

These structures (the libidinal ego and internal saboteur), while created by repression, are, in effect, an aggressive attack by the central ego against internalized bad objects and the subsidiary egos by which these objects are cathected. Aggression is not the sole province of the central ego, since the “subsidiary egos” also have access to aggression and display aggressive tendencies towards the central ego and each other. In Fairbairn’s theory, the internal saboteur seems to more readily express aggression towards the exciting object (libidinal ego), and this would seem to follow in terms of the idea of the internal saboteur helping to defend against excitation and pleasurable experiences. In this vein, Fairbairn reminds us that aggression is not considered to be a drive, but a reactive capacity of the human being when frustrated or provoked. Although aggression cannot be reduced to another state, it is in the service of, or subordinate to, libidinal factors. As we will see later, one of Fair-bairn’s revisions is to posit a pre-ambivalent object. However, for most of his theoretical career, although ambivalence is not considered to be a preformed state, it occurs quite early in the infant’s life.

Ambivalence and aggression both occur as a result of frustration and initially as a result of the trauma of separation, more particularly, separation from one’s mother. From the infant’s point of view, the mother’s separation is a cause of ambivalence, and this ambivalence is intolerable for the infant. “To ameliorate this intolerable situation, he splits the figure of his mother into two objects—a satisfying (‘good’) object and unsatisfying (‘bad’) object” (ibid., p.172). The bad object is then split (in the manner previously described) and, thus, the maternal object becomes both an exciting (libidinal ego) and rejecting object (internal saboteur). From this description, it would seem that there is a risk for the infant in expressing either excited or aggressive feelings towards the mother. Fairbairn sees the risk of expressing aggressive ideation as making the maternal object more real as a bad object. This then makes the loss of



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