You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
IDEALIZATION IS A CONCEPT THAT has been utilized more within the object relations frame of thinking, particularly in regard to the 'narcissistic neuroses', than within the pragmatism of the interpersonal
frame. All the more reason an interpersonalist should raise issues about idealization and its handling in the psychoanalytic work.
In our field, different meanings have been attributed to idealization. Perhaps we should take the positive attitude of the deconstructionists at Yale, such as Harold Bloom (1986), and value different, even opposite, meanings to the issue of idealization. Sullivan had a fair amount to say about idealization; and I follow his formulations more than Kohut's or Kernberg's or M. Klein's. The first part of this paper is a discussion of how each of these ana