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In his paper, “Psychoanalysis in / and development”, Thijs de Wolf leads with elegance, between biology and psychology, from psychoanalysis to psychopathology, from the attachment theory to internal working models and further to mentalisation.
He makes interesting connections between reference names of psychoanalysis: Freud, Bowlby, Blatt, Fonagy and their theories, in order to highlight the importance and impact of relational perspective in psychodynamic psychotherapy.
I'll refer to one aspect of the work: if there is a genetically determined need to form emotional connections with others in order to survive, this entails the finding of an adequate balance between autonomy and relatedness. Sometimes the balance is found by surrendering either autonomy or relatedness. Herein lie, from the perspective of psychonalysis, the beginnings of the forming of psychopathology. In Freudian terms this balance would be equivalent to that between libido and agression. If “libido” suggests a tendency to intimacy, “aggression” suggests the need for autonomy.
Going further, security is tied to being connected to others without losing yourself, and to being yourself without losing others. By means of specific attachment strategies the individual attains his optimal balance between distance and proximity, between autonomy and relatedness. Based on his experiences with attachment objects, attachment strategies are internalized, becoming (internal) attachment representations, established