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This is Althea Horner's third volume on topics of interest to psychotherapists, patients in psychotherapy, and members of the general public who wish to be enlightened about dimensions of human motivation.
The volume is divided into sections which are united by a developmental-object relations perspective. The first section describes the range of the power-powerless continuum. Horner distinguishes between an individual's subjective perception and experience of power in an interaction that is internalized as part of the self- and object representations, and intrinsic power, which refers to effecting, assertive, and mastery motivations of the developing self or ego. These intrinsic motives are in the area of primary autonomy but can secondarily become involved in conflict.
In the second section, a developmental perspective based on the formulations of Mahler, et al.,1 is presented. She uses the term "power pivot" to describe the separation-individuation process that culminates in the rapprochement phase, in which a child loses its illusions of omnipotent power and comes face to face with the reality of its dependency upon powerful parental figures. Within the dyad there exists a potential for power sharing between interactive partners that enhances and supports the child's evolving intrinsic capacities for competence, mastery, and initiative. Alternatively, there may be power plays in which dominant parents force submission from intimidated, angry children. These internalized power plays are eventually transformed into envy, sadomasochistic enactments, persistent aversive behaviors, and defensive inhibitions of assertiveness and potency, as the vicissitudes of competitiveness and envy enter human relationships in the context of oedipal conflicts.
Although childhood and adolescence offer new opportunities for renegotiation of these internalized patterns, psychopathology results when negotiations fail. Horner examines subtle, sometimes contradictory messages concer