Otto Kernberg Quotes

incapacity to commit oneself to any value system beyond one supplying self-serving needs usually indicates severe narcissistic pathology. The

Bion (1961), Turquet (1975) and Anzieu (1984) have described the regression that occurs when group processes take over. Impressive

When NPD and psychopathy combine, they form a pattern of behavior called malignant narcissism. This isn’t a diagnosis, but a term coined by psychoanalyst Erich Fromm and elaborated on by personality disorder expert, Otto Kernberg, to describe people so driven by feeling special that they essentially see other people as pawns in their game of kill or be killed, whether metaphorically or literally.

Holding or containing has cognitive and affective components and includes a basic attitude of concern for oneself and the patient and a psychological openness to the unknown in others as well as in oneself.

Subtle but significant superego pathology may easily go undetected throughout psychoanalytic training and only emerge later in trivialization, cynical relativism, messianic deterioration, and rigidly dogmatic and paranoid stances regarding psychoanalysis.

lack of explicit criteria for the appointment of faculty in general, and the lack of explicit policies and criteria for the quality control of faculty functioning, particularly of training analysts’ functioning, reflects the political nature of these appointments. The avoidance

diminished creative thinking and

monotonous repetition of concepts that, by the same token; also reassure the faculty that nothing new is threatening their

second model, that of a technical or trade school, would conceive the primary task of psychoanalytic education to be the learning of a clearly defined skill or trade, with no emphasis on artistic creativity. Teachers

Because psychoanalytic institutes have not attempted to develop such functional administrative structures, the prevalent defenses of idealization and feelings of persecution have contributed to pushing the organizational structure into further reinforcing these defensive operations.

an art academy, (2) a technical trade school, (3) a monastery or religious retreat, and (4) a university college. I shall spell out the theoretical implications of these models, the

Narcissistic deterioration

Habermas (1971–1973) described ideology as motivated false consciousness of social classes. He outlined the potential resolution of this false consciousness by means of a “critical theory” that would provide self-reflective enlightenment together with social emancipation. Ideology, within this conception, and also related ones of Marxist writers, implies, according to Althusser (1976), an unconsciously determined system of illusory representations of reality. This system, said Althusser, derived from the internalization of the dominant illusion a social class harbored about the conditions of its own existence, is achieved by means of the internalization of the “Paternal law” as part of the internalization of the oedipal superego. Habermas drew a parallel between the philosophical analysis of ideologies by means of critical theory, on the one hand, and the psychoanalytic situation, on the other. In psychoanalytic treatment, the patient also starts out with a “false consciousness,” and is helped by the analyst to gain enlightenment by means of self-reflection, an enlightenment geared to emancipation of the patient. If psychoanalysis frees the individual from an ideology as a false consciousness, one effect of psychoanalysis would be to eliminate the proneness to embrace ideologies. But Marxist thinkers, as Kolakowski (1978) points out, are caught in the dilemma that Marxism itself represents an ideology (notwithstanding the traditional Marxist efforts to solve the paradox by declaring Marxism to be a science rather than an ideology).

psychoanalytic institutes as monasteries or religious retreats and psychoanalysis as a system of religious beliefs. Whereas

paranoid atmosphere that often pervades psychoanalytic institutes and its devastating effect on the “quality of life” in psychoanalytic education. Members

unhooked telephone”: the

the secretive oedipal couple and the excluded children so prevalent in psychoanalytic institutes. The “paranoiagenic” (Jaques, 1976) atmosphere of psychoanalytic institutes, the

major threat to the psychoanalyst’s creativity in working with his patient is the patient’s relentless, aggressive attack on the analyst’s work with him. Attacks of this sort produce narcissistic lesions in the psychoanalyst. It is much easier for the analyst to tolerate aggression against any other aspects of his personality or behavior. The training analyst unable to tolerate the narcissistic candidate-analysand’s aggression may foster an unconscious collusion with the analysand, so that the latter’s aggression, particularly the destructive implications of unconscious envy, will not be explored. The

objective monitoring and qualification which reduces arbitrary, private subjective judgments carried out

unavoidable repetition of “family life” (with intergenerational conflicts, sibling rivalry, “primal scene” material, etc.)

introspection and self-analysis, a creative capacity, an ability to think under adverse circumstances, ethical behavior that assures avoiding acting out in the counter transference, tolerance for the frustration of psychoanalytic work, particularly the ability to cope with uncertainties and with the temporary loss of the ability to understand. I would add, as related qualities, the analyst’s confidence in the possibility of acquiring new understanding through introspection and insight and of bringing about change through insight in oneself and others, at the same time maintaining respect for the limitations of both understanding and the change derived from it. The

The termination phase of psychoanalysis Working-through of mourning, typical of the termination phase of psychoanalysis, brings forth the working through of the candidate-analysand’s relation to his analyst, and, by extension, to psychoanalysis itself. In my

propose four models of education, each of which corresponds to explicit aims that have

first model, the art academy,

The narcissistic lesions absorbed by senior training analysts through the phenomenon of “unhooked telephones” may increase their countertransference reactions to their own candidates and the displacement of these reactions onto other training analysts and candidates, thereby increasing their paranoid reactions toward the institution.

reporting” is officially disappearing from psychoanalytic institutes at this time, it tends to linger on in this informal way.

Grinberg (1983), in exploring the analyst’s professional identity, stresses a particular kind of curiosity regarding the mind and psychic reality, a curiosity that extends to the analyst’s own psychic functioning; Grinberg

psychoanalytic institute as a university college, as an institution for the transmission, exploration, and generation of knowledge, including

superego also makes a crucial contribution to the analyst’s identity. Superimposed

Gertrude Ticho (1967) in a study of self-analysis concluded that it is a gradually developing, discontinuous function, which depends for its activation on multiple, individually determined circumstances, and basically is largely rooted in the past experiences during the training analysis. The

Chasseguet-Smirgel and Grunberger (1986) have described how psychoanalytic thinking and understanding can be transformed into an ideology or political program containing messianic and/or paranoid characteristics that are in dramatic contrast to the very nature of psychoanalytic insight.

The financial security of older training analysts in power and the distraction from the ordinary uncertainties of aging may play an important role here.

degree of maturity in the level of personal identification with social, political, or religious ideologies; second, an ability to resist regression when subject to group processes; and third, an ability to adhere to a value system of one’s own choosing as opposed to submitting to conventionality.

short, I am suggesting that the superego aspects of a psychoanalytic identity are reflected not only in moral integrity (in a moral as opposed to a moralistic stance vis-a-vis the patient) but also in resilience to the corruptive or regressive pressures operating upon the superego within the social and cultural system. I now turn

The narcissistic gratifications involved in psychoanalytic training, such as professional advancement, the unconscious misuse of the therapeutic relationship as an expression of power, basking in patients’ idealizations, and the facilitation of vicarious living through patients may unfortunately remain unrecognized for many years. The

training analysts that utilizes the exacerbation of idealization processes inherent in psychoanalytic training to consolidate its power and the related narcissistic gratification by exercising control over a small social organization.

indoctrination rather

self-protective withdrawal from candidates who are perceived as particularly privileged or untouchable, and “compassionate graduation” of inadequately performing candidates who have remained in training for many years are other typical symptoms of the failure to invest adequate authority in the faculty body.

psychoanalysis is more than a technique; it is an art, and highly specialized training in craftsmanship will

modern figure most associated with the study of malignant narcissism is my former teacher Otto Kernberg (1970), who defined the syndrome as having four components: (1) narcissistic personality disorder, (2) antisocial behavior, (3) paranoid traits, and (4) sadism. Kernberg told the New York Times that malignantly narcissistic leaders such as Hitler and Stalin are “able to take control because their inordinate narcissism is expressed in grandiosity, a confidence in themselves, and the assurance that they know what the world needs” (Goode 2003). At the same time, “they express their aggression in cruel and sadistic behavior against their enemies: whoever does not submit to them or love them.” As Pollock (1978) wrote, “the malignant narcissist is pathologically grandiose, lacking in conscience and behavioral regulation[,] with characteristic demonstrations of joyful cruelty and sadism.