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Ludvig Igra is a training analyst of the Swedish Society of Holistic Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. His first two books, Object Relations and Psychotherapy (1983) and A Question of Life and Death (1988) [my translation], discussed the decisive influence of object relations on human development and the relation between narcissism and human destructivity, respectively.
In his new book Inner World and Change, the author further explores concepts such as self-organisation, inner objects and identification as well as the unconscious dynamic conditions that promote or hinder change in the inner world. The book is part of a widespread interest in psychic change as a goal for psychoanalytic treatment.
Igra does not claim to present a comprehensive theory of change. His way of thinking is close to Kleinian thinking as it has been described by Steiner (1996, ‘The aim of psychoanalysis in theory and in practice’ Int. J. Psychoanal., 77: 1073–1083). He examines the function and position of inner objects seen in the light of projective identification and examines those interventions that promote or inhibit change.
As an image of the process of change he turns to the Biblical description of the Exodus of the Jews from the land of Egypt. Exodus describes the deliverance from slavery and captivity and the long journey full of dangers through the desert to the promised land. This journey across the desert from slavery to the promised land gives rise to the constant interactions between the anxiety of human beings to leave a known environment and their endeavours to reach new goals. In these efforts human beings can be seized by unbearable feelings of loneliness, which threaten their movement forward and make them resort to inexpedient solutions.
Thus when Moses lingers on the mountain his people feel abandoned. They lament on their difficulties and contemplate going back to Egypt, to slavery. In this state of abandonment, anxiety and insecurity they create their own god, a golden cal