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In his book, Aggression in Personality Disorder and Perversions, Dr. Otto F. Kernberg presents a rich assemblage of clinical material and theory. The case examples, occurring in the psychoanalytic setting, are valuable for the clinical reader. They illustrate lucid application of theory to the dyadic encounter in the effort toward psychological healing.
Theory is derived from Freud's concepts but also, and perhaps more uniquely, from the object relations school, that is, the power of early encounters with parental and significant others; a power of such degree that these figures are internalized, living almost as eternal occupants of the mind. Such internationalizations are called introjections or, at a more advanced level, identifications. Internalizations have the capacity to become externalized, projected in a relatively pure form or as more poorly organized projective identifications. The latter rupture patient-analyst boundaries and are usually detected in the analytic setting by countertransference.
In his conduct of analysis, Dr. Kernberg detects the operation of these internalizations as they occur in the transference, and then, when timely, brings them to the patient's attention and demonstrates their archaic power, often