Changes

The term '[[ambivalence]]' is used in [[psychoanalysis]] to describe the simultaneous [[existence]] of contradictory [[feelings]] towards a single [[object]]. In his [[discussion]] of the '[[Rat Man]]' [[case]], [[Freud]] speaks of a battle between [[love]] and [[hate]].The same person is the [[object]] of both emotions.For [[Freud]], [[ambivalence]] stems from the basic [[bisexuality]] of [[human]] beings and from the [[structures]] of the [[oedipus complex]], which means that the [[child]] can simultaneously [[love]] and [[hate]] its [[parents]].  Ambivalence is the simultaneous [[presence ]] of conflicting feelings and tendencies with respect to an object. During the winter meeting of Swiss psychiatrists in Berne on November 26-27, 1910, [[Paul ]] Eugen Bleuler described, with respect to schizophrenia, the simultaneous existence of contradictory feelings toward an object or person and, with respect to actions, the insoluble concurrence of two tendencies, such as eating and not eating. In "The [[Rat man|Rat Man]]" (1909d) Freud had already indicated that the opposition between love and hate for the objectcould explain the [[particular]] features of obsessive [[thought]] (doubt, [[compulsion]]). In [[Totem]] and Taboo (1912-13a) he adopted the term "ambivalence" proposed by Bleuler in the [[text]] of his conference published in 1911 in the Zentralblatt. For Freud the term, in its most general [[sense]], designated the presence in a [[subject]] of a pair of opposed impulses of the same intensity; most frequently this involved the opposition between love and hate, which was often expressed in [[obsessional]] [[neuroses]] and [[melancholy]]. In 1915, in his metapsychological writings, he added that it was the [[loss]] of the [[Love Object|love object]] that, through [[regression]], caused the [[conflict]] of ambivalence to appear. In 1920 Karl [[Abraham]] emphasized the intensity of the [[sadistic]] [[fantasy]] associated with urinary and digestive functions. In 1924 he extended and transformed the [[Freudian]] [[schema]] of the evolution of the [[libido]] into a [[complete]] picture of the [[development]] of the relation to the object along two lines: the [[partial]] or [[total]] [[nature]] of the investment in the object, and ambivalence. The precocious [[oral]] [[stage]] of sucking is preambivalent, neither love nor hate are felt toward the object. There follow four ambivalent phases: the late [[oral stage]], which is cannibalistic and seeks the total [[incorporation]] of the object, the precocious [[anal]]-sadistic stage, which seeks the [[expulsion]] and [[destruction]] of the object, the late [[anal-sadistic stage]], which seeks its conservation and domination, and finally the precocious-[[phallic]] [[genital]] stage. The final genital [[phase]] of love towards a complete object is postambivalent. Freud integrated Abraham's contributions in the thirty-second of his New Introductory Lectures on [[Psycho]]-[[analysis]] (1933a).Within the [[oedipal]] conflict ambivalence is resolved as a [[neurotic]] [[symptom]], either through a reaction [[formation]] or through [[displacement]] (1926d).Reformulated in the second [[theory]] of [[instincts]], ambivalence becomes part of the fundamental [[instinctual]] [[dualism]]: [[life]] [[instinct]]/death instinct. For Melanie [[Klein]] ambivalence was key in formulating a theory of [[depression]]. The interplay of [[introjection]] and [[projection]], the [[dialectic]] of [[good]] and bad [[objects]], and depressive [[anxiety]], signaling the [[fear]] of destroying the [[maternal]] object, are the [[apparent]] manifestations of the conflict of ambivalence. Together they constitute the ego and [[work]] toward resolving the oedipal conflict. For Paul-Claude Racamier (1976), while melancholy is hyperambivalent in that it results from an intense [[struggle]] between love and hate, schizophrenia must be considered as a fundamentally antiambivalent [[process]], where "contrary impulses . . . radically [[split]], fuse separately in a nearly pure [[state]], presenting themselves alternately to the same object or simultaneously to [[partial objects]] that are always distinct and [[divided]]." ==See Also==* [[Bleuler, Paul Eugen]]* [[Contradiction]]* [[Essential depression]]* [[Doubt]]* [[Fusion/defusion]]* [["Instincts and their Vicissitudes;" Melancholia]]* [["Mourning and Melancholy;" Parricide Phobias in children]]* [[Phobia of committing impulsive acts]]* [[Object]]* [[Obsessional neurosis]]* [[Orality]]* [[Oral-sadistic stage]]* [[Reaction formation]]* [[Schizophrenia]]* [[Taboo]]* [[Totem/totemism]] ==References==<references/># Abraham, Karl. (1927). A short [[history]] of the development of the libido. In Selected papers of [[Karl Abraham]] (Douglas Bryan and Alix Strachey, Trans.). [[London]]: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1924)# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1909d). [[Notes]] upon a case of obsessional [[neurosis]]. SE, 10: 151-318.# ——. (1912-13a). [[Totem and Taboo|Totem and taboo]]. SE, 13: 1-161.# ——. (1926d [1925]). Inhibitions, [[symptoms]], and anxiety. SE, 20: 75-172.# ——. (1933a [1932]). New [[Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis|introductory lectures on psycho-analysis]]. SE, 22: 1-182.# Klein, Melanie. (1975). A contribution to the psychogenesis of [[manic-depressive]] states. In The writings of [[Melanie Klein]]. London: Hogarth Press, 1975. (Reprinted from International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 16 (1975), 145-174.)# ——. (1975). The [[Oedipus]] [[complex]] in the light of early [[anxieties]]. In The writings of Melanie Klein. London: Hogarth Press, 1975. (Reprinted from International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 26 (1945), 11-33.) [[Category:New]]