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A brief note to explain why we chose to discuss Halo in the Sky: In a prior meeting our group discussed clinical material, most recently several analyses where the patients viewed their analysts as clear thinking and well organized, interested only in the most lofty intellectual matters and artistic pursuits. The idealization appeared to ward off fantasies of the analyst as bawdy, messy, or out of control. This case material led us to look into the clinical literature on anality. We were struck by how little has been written in recent years in this area and were pleased to find Leonard Shengold's Halo in the Sky. The Journal asked us to provide an edited transcript of our discussion.
Peter Dunn:
Halo in the Sky, by Leonard Shengold, received little attention when it was published in 1988, but it is the most detailed analysis of the anal phase since Abraham.
Shengold writes:
Anal phenomena are familiar to every student … but they have somehow receded into the background (I am using an anal metaphor here) of our theory in recent years…. My central concept, anal-narcissistic defensiveness, concerns the use of anal drive derived energy for defensive purposes. … I am trying to contribute something towards the basic concept of defense, which I see as an aspect of the even more basic concept of the body ego [p. 3].
Defenses like suppression, isolation, splitting, devaluation, and idealization are, according to Shengold, fantasies that arise in the child's