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When reading a psychological article, I look primarily for two things. First, does it hold my interest, and second, does it make me think, or even more broadly does it begin a reflective process? The article, “Winnicott and the (un)Integrated Self”, both held my interest and led me into processing. I had concerns about some of the article's assertions, and I also had difficulty with the headiness, particularly the lack of grounding in case material. I did find the article to be a stimulating read, however, and it provided some very useful conceptualizations for clinical work.
Taipale does an excellent job of explaining the concepts with which they are grappling, and specifically focusing on the need to clarify the experience of relaxed unintegration as it applies to our psychological development. I found the use of horizontal and vertical integration/unintegration to be quite interesting and helpful. I was able to reflect on past clients and other relationships that I now understand at another level. I will continue to study the concepts, with the idea that they can be used in my analytic work and in teaching.
In a sense, the whole concept of unintegration can be related to Jung's description of two kinds of thinking: fantasy-thinking and directed thinking
(Jung, 1956, paras. 4-46). Jung's use of these terms dates back as early as 1911. The experience of horizontal unintegration, and indeed primary unintegration, is an experience of fantasy-thinking, in which the mind wanders and is not consciously focused. We experience this kind of thinking essentially whenever we are not engaged in directed thinking, which requires willpower and is exhausting. Directed thinking is a relatively recent development in human functioning and our minds can often revert to fantasy-thinking when the directed process has tired us out. Taipale describes the anxiety that can accompany unintegration, when an individual has not been “diachronically held together by the caregiving environment