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For several months before his death, Johann Aufreiter had been working on Attachment and Relational Theories and Their Significance for Psychoanalysis. The following is his draft for the paper, sent to James Naiman for his comments. We publish it as a tribute to Dr. Aufreiter, an esteemed and loved teacher for many members of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society.
La mort a malheureusement interrompu les travaux du Johann Aufreiter qui se consacrait, depuis plusieurs mois, à une recherche sur Attachment and Relational Theories and Their Significance for Psychoanalysis. En hommage au Dr Aufreiter, un professeur qui fut aimé et estimé par plusieurs membres de la Société canadienne de psychanlyse, nous reproduisons ci-dessous l'ébauche de son projet qu'il avait fait parvenir au James Naiman.
This is my condensed view, based on Bowlby's attachment theory, of the significance of interpersonal relations for human psychological development. I am convinced that the need for interpersonal relations is inborn and is more important than the pleasure striving (oral, anal, genital) described by Sigmund Freud (my first deviation from classical theory). One could say that the greatest pleasure experienced by the infant is the interpersonal relationship in the form of being loved. This love I define as a constant loving attitude with consideration for the baby's needs, particularly but not only for feeding, elimination, and, very early, as Freud showed, for sexual gratification.
If a woman did not herself receive such love as a child, she will have difficulties in giving it to her own baby. The child will perceive even small