Using data from infant observation, and child, adolescent, and adult analyses, the Novicks explicate a multidimensional, developmental theory of sadomasochism that has been recognized as a major innovation. According to the Novicks, each phase of development contributes to the clinical manifestations of sadomasochism. Painful experiences in infancy are transformed into a mode of attachment, then into an embraced marker of specialness and unlimited destructive power, then into a conviction of equality with oedipal parents, and, finally, into an omnipotent capacity to gratify infantile wishes through the coercion of others. By school age, these children have established a magic omnipotent system of thought which undermines alternate means of competent interactions with reality. In adolescence and adulthood it becomes increasingly hard for them to deny, avoid, or distort reality without resorting to escalating self-destructive behaviors. Sadomasochistic phenomena are the source of severe resistances and counterreactions in all phases of therapy. This book helps clinicians recognize and overcome these blocks to treatment progress and success. Here can be found an introduction to the Novicks' reformulation of the therapeutic alliance, and their distinctive contributions to the transformations of memory and the termination of treatment. Originally published in hardcover by Jason Aronson in 1995 Contents: Beating Fantasies in Children The Essence of Masochism Masochism and the Delusion of Omnipotence from a Developmental Perspective Postoedipal Transformations: Latency, Adolescence, and Pathogenesis Projection and Externalization Varieties of Transference in the Analysis of an Adolescent Externalization as a Pathological Form of Relating: The Dynamic Underpinnings of Abuse Attempted Suicide in Adolescence: The Suicide Sequence A "Boo Warning": Ego Disruption in an Abused Little Girl "I Hate You for Saving My Life": Borrowed Trauma in the Analysis of a Young Adult Talking with Toddlers Negative Therapeutic Motivation and Negative Therapeutic Alliance Deciding on Termination: The Relevance of Child and Adolescent Analytic Experience to Work with Adults Termination: A Case Report of the End Phase of an "Interminable" Analysis Sadomasochism and the Therapeutic Alliance: Implications for Clinical Technique About the Authors: Kerry Kelly Novick and Jack Novick are child, adolescent, and adult psychoanalysts on the faculty of the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute. They have been working with children and families for 35 years and joined other colleagues to found a non-profit psychoanalytic school, Allen Creek Preschool, in Ann Arbor. Both Jack and Kerry Novick have written extensively.
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