Meetings of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

DISCUSSION: Dr. I. Peter Glauber recalled that in his work on stuttering he independently came upon certain mechanisms described by Klein: part object identifications, nuclear passivity, and the importance of aggression. Nuclear passivity was later referred to by Dr. Lewin as the oral triad. It was suggested that since we have not yet developed the optimum therapy, we could learn from Klein's techniques.

In response to a question, projective identification was defined as the projection of one's impulses onto an object with consequent identification with the projected aspects of the object. The relation of this concept to narcissistic identification was considered. Replying to another question, Dr. Geleerd stated that Klein's theories were observationally inaccurate. Her belief in the existence of the Oedipus complex in the first months of life is erroneous.

Attempts to bridge the gap between Kleinian and non-Kleinian psychoanalytic concepts, to translate one into the other, were unsuccessful. It was asked whether Klein's concepts would be acceptable if the time distortions of her work were corrected; perhaps her ideas, such as the superego being the result of a series of introjections or the concept of the superego as internal persecutor, are acceptable to freudians. Dr. Geleerd noted that when Kleinians are confronted with such transpositions, they object that they are incorrect. Dr. Martin H. Stein and others noted that the relative neglect of structure and ego in the English school's concepts and their relegating libido to a secondary defensive role made it impossible to achieve a successful transposition. Dr. Rudolph M. Loewenstein objected to the Kleinian reification of concepts, to their considering, for instance, an introject not just a fantasied but a real inside object. Discussing Klein's theory of anxiety, Dr. Brenner criticized Mrs. Klein's assertion that anxiety is simply a result of the death instinct. Dr. Edward Harkavy questioned the strong