OBJECT IS WHERE WE START FROM
Ali Algin Koskdere 12.12.21
At the beginning of his work, Freud thought that what his patients told about their childhood were concrete facts. Evaluating what the patients said in this way, all parents had become abusers. Later, when he changed his perspective and considered that the narratives were abstract and symbolic, he developed the concept of inner reality. Freud was interested in the dynamics of concretization through creativity, childhood, and primitive humans. Many analysts have explored concretization processes of human. Winnicott, on the other hand, particularly emphasized the importance of the concrete and actual existence of the transitional object. I will focus on this point in my talk.
I got interested in this issue because of the Pandemic. The Pandemic has made us clearly feel the meaning of concrete life, art and social life and how much we need experiences in the transitional area. As my isolation increased due to the pandemic, I began to explore the objects of the psychic world during the weekend curfews. I saw that as psychoanalysis developed, the number objects of the inner world -for example narcissistic object or anaclitic object- increased over time.
In the world of objects of psychoanalysis, the definition of "object" symbolizes the person representation in the inner world. The word “object” is actually too concrete, lifeless, and emotionless. But no other word has been found that can replace it.
Another point I will mention before the subject of concretization is Winnicott's different approach to the dynamics of incorporation indirectly. Winnicott had explained the importance of mirroring. After addressing the situations of non-mirroring and the inanimateness of the transitional object, which can be as effective as mirroring, I will also deal with its relationship with anality. Concretization and non-mirroring are topics that are generally interpreted in psychoanalytic literature in terms of their negative aspects, and their role in psychosis and primary process. After examining the positive aspects of these phenomena, I will add the re-creation of illusion to the processes of illusion and disillusionment theorized by Winnicott. The transitional space and organization that are built during the re-creation of the illusion are invaluable. As understood by the temples that are found in Göbeklitepe which is the first known transitional space, the transitional space is the place where humanity started.
List of In-betweens
I will first refer to Winnicott's "complex proposition" for the transitional object, as he puts it. Winnicott placed the transitional object between many dual positions. He defines more than ten positions in his article "Transitional Object and Transitional Phenomenon":
• Teddy bear and finger
• Oral eroticism and real object relationship
• Subjective and objective
• Hallucination, fantasy and reality
• Internal and external
• Me and not-me
• Similarity and difference etc.
Being between many such positions indicates that the transitional object stands at the intersection of many developmental processes. These are pathways of ego development. They are also related to the process of differentiation of the self from the object.
Incorporation by Holding
In the oral stage, concrete milk and abstract love are the same thing. While the mother representation is repeatedly incorporated with oral eroticism, physical bodily ingestion becomes phantasmatic and a self-object relationship is established in the baby. Before this stage, the "state of being" defined by Winnicott is experienced. According to Winnicott, the purely feminine element in the mother is "being" and is associated with the breast. Winnicott defines primary identification, which is the early internalization of the mother, as the infant's identification with the mother's "state of being" before the infant separates from the mother. Thus, if I redefine according to Winnicott's theory, incorporation does not occur through the ego's taking in the object. Since the boundaries of the ego develop after the object representation is formed, after the object separates from the self, it finds itself within the ego. That is, the child holds and wraps the object he finds in it during the incorporation. In this form of incorporation, there is no aggression of biting and sucking while taking in. but of course to hold for too long or too tight could be suffocating. In addition, the fact that the transitional object is a physical object that cannot be eaten and taken in, but can only be hold, directs the ego outward.
Autoeroticism
If we come a little more towards the surface of the body after the subject of incorporation, we encounter autoeroticism. Winnicott's determination that the transitional object "contains and does not contain autoeroticism, it begins with autoeroticism" implies that the transitional object is both perceived and not perceived as an object on the body surface. The development and dynamics of the transitional object and autoerotism are very similar. In order for both to develop, a mother who cares for the baby with love is needed to form the inner object representation before all. I think the dynamic of holding and releasing in the transitional object also directs the child outward while associating the transitional object with anality.
A healthy self-object relationship provides the ground for the drives to act. If I continue Winnicott's list of in-betweens, quoting from him, "the transitional object does not come from within, nor does it come from outside," "it is both a breast and not… it is both a symbol and it is not."
Self-Part doesn't Equal to Material Object
Symbol is a phenomenon that is formed by regression and progression between concreteness and abstractness. While explaining symbolic equation, Segal clarified concrete and abstract thinking through the distinction between body part and material object. Segal explained this difference by comparing two male musicians, one psychotic and the other neurotic. The first of the patients is psychotic and concretely equates violin with the penis and playing the violin with masturbation. He denied the differences between his body and the material object. He couldn't distinguish between himself and non-self.
The second musician, a neurotic, describes a dream in which he plays a violin duet with a young girl. In his associations with playing the violin, he expresses his relationships and thoughts about masturbation. Thus, it turns out that the violin symbolizes his penis, and playing the violin symbolizes a masturbation fantasy in which he fantasizes about sexual intercourse. The ego that can test reality distinguishes the self from the object. Substituting objects are "like" the first object, they are not identical but similar. Only when the negation separates the self and the object can a transitional space occur. The transitional area is between these two states, namely the psychotic and the neurotic, similarity and difference which Winnicott also stated in his article.
Symbolization with the help of negation and concretization, and use of inanimate objects as tools separates humans from other living things and initiates humanity.
That Woman Is Not My Mother
The acceptance that the substitute object is not like the first object is related to the development of the negation ability of the ego. Through negation, displacement occurs, and symbol formation becomes a sublimation. At the beginning of Freud's Negation article the expression that "You ask who the woman in my dream is. That woman was not my mother.” is similar to the example above. This time, not material objects and body parts, two similar objects, mother and woman are separated.
We can call the formation of the transitional object a pre-sublimation stage in which displacement exercises are performed. It differs from the above psychotic state. There, concrete thought indicates a fixation because it lacks negation, while for the infant the transitional object is a progress.
We encounter negation a lot in Winnicott's article "Transitional object and Transition phenomenon". For example, the last case is an example of how one can relate to the object through negation and abstraction of the object.
Negative Woman
Winnicott focused on the area between objectivity and subjectivity in this case. When the woman was a child, she was separated from her parents because of the war, and she did not call anyone as her aunt or uncle wherever she stayed. Winnicott interpreted this as the negative of remembering parents. The patient tried to keep in mind the emptiness of his parents by not putting anyone in their place and ignoring those who could substitute them. This patient is fixated to both abstraction and negation, and refused to produce a concrete substitute object. By idealizing the absence of the mother, she turned the pain of separation from the past object into a masochistic pleasure. Even when it is cold, she preferred to feel the absence of the blanket which feels more real for her.
The inability to create a concrete substitute object with negation made it difficult to establish a connection with the object that is present there. Severe abstraction and the inability to produce a substitute concrete object inhibits mourning, too.
Boy with the Rope
The other case that Winnicott gave is also related to the problems of separation from the mother and the problems of excessive concretization of the self and object bond. The Boy with the Rope was left alone very early, with the birth of his sister, his mother's depressions and hospitalizations. He used the rope in different ways against fragmentation. He tied chairs and tables together, tied a rope around his sister's neck, and hung himself from a tree by his feet.
Winnicott made the following comments for the rope:
• It is evidence of a lack of communication,
• It shows that the child has lost hope for his mother and denies the separation,
• The rope has become a dangerous object that needs to be controlled,
• Secondary gains complicate development of transitional object.
From these statements, we can deduce that the transitional object is not used in a lack of communication, but in separations that occur when there is communication between child and mother. Likewise, it plays a role in the acceptance of separation, not its denial. It is not a dangerous object and can be dominated. While the rope is a dangerous object for the Boy with the Rope, he has developed the ability to benefit in a sadomasochistic way in relationships from the danger it creates . When the rope becomes the object of the child's relationship with his parents, it ceases to be a transitional object. The Boy with the Rope was able to create a concrete object, but could not use it as a transitional object. The rope could not give way to new creations and turned into a dependent fixation.
If concretization is used instead of communication and for denial of separation without establishing a secure relationship with the inner object, it cannot turn into a symbol and does not serve psychic development. It becomes a fixation.
Concretization
The child's relationship with the transitional object is a concretization and is dominated by concrete thinking. The unconscious and primary process which are dominated by the pleasure principle, immediately seeks to embody what it wants. Concretization is a phenomenon defined in different aspects as follows:
1. The relationship with the body is an concretization and is related to vitality.
2. Psychotic thought destroys metaphorical meaning. There are no other possibilities and there is only one concrete situation.
concretization has a role in:
3. Operational thinking in psychosomatic,
4. Acting out of primitive and violent emotions,
5. Re-enactment unconscious phantasy with repetition compulsion,
6. Actualization of transference and
7. In grief
8. Art is the concretization of aesthetics, religion is the concretization of morality, science is the concretization of logic and sports is the concretization of competition.
9. Defensive concretization protects from disintegration, anxiety provoking emptiness and psychosis. In anxiety disorders, patients look for concrete assurances against anxiety by carrying items such as pills, water, and telephone. In obsessive neurosis, concretization is used for different kinds of controlling purposes.
Analysts such as Silvano Arieti and Harold Searles have shown the course of concretization and how the ability to think abstractly emerges in schizophrenia. Thought and perception cannot be separated and negated in psychosis. Hallucinations lack a concrete reciprocal in the outside world.
Arieti has worked on concretization in artistic creativity and there are some of his books translated into Turkish. He claimed that art combines primary and secondary processes with a magical power, and he called it the tertiary process. Concretization of primary process and abstraction of secondary process works together in the tertiary process.
Kenneth Wright, in his chapter “The Irrepressible Song,” writes about concretization while he discusses the subject of “form". He states that it is constantly present in Winnicott’s thought. While concretization creates an opportunity to experience, it also includes action and supports symbolization. Experience gains an image, a name and a body with the help of concretization. The definition of “embodiment” is a form of expression of concretization. Wright states that images vocalize and portray experiences better than words. We can say that a material object is much more effective in mentalizing the experience by appealing to all perception organs in its three-dimensional form.
According to Wright, with the transitional object, the child recreates the bodily experience of the mother and allows him to hold his mother. In creating the transitional object, the child identifies with his mother and holds the transitional object as the mother holds and carries him. Jacobson interprets child's belief that he is the mother when he imitates her, as a magical idea. Here she sees the child's desire to preserve a part from the mother and merge with her. When the child reaches the identification stage, it shows that he is separated from his mother as much as he can identify with her. I might add to Winnicott's list of "in-betweens" of the transitional object being between identification and separation. When the child adds a word he heard from his parents to the transitional object, a fusion occurs while his voice becomes his mother's voice and his attitude becomes his mother's.
Concretization is an effort to provide unity against disorganization. When abstract issues, especially when the separation with its uncertainties and effects becomes a threat, concretization tries to provide a certainty. When mental pain cannot be tolerated, it can be transformed into physical pain in an effort to change the function or form of pain. Ilany Kogan is one of the psychoanalysts who showed how these processes related to concretization can be worked through in psychoanalytic work. She showed the embodiment of unconscious trauma that the victims of the Holocaust transfer on to their children. Unconscious phantasy, especially if it involves trauma, creates a repetition compulsion through concretization and pressure to re-enactment. In the cases described by Kogan, an intergenerational transitional area could not be established and generations couldn’t talk about traumas due to the unconscious transmission of trauma between generations. The inability to create a transitional space with talking between generations has inhibited the transformation of concretization to symbolization and has become pathogenic. Cry of the Mute Children, The Struggle Against Mourning, Escape From the Self and The Canvas of Change are the books of Kogan's that have been translated into Turkish.
Between the Animate and the Inanimate
The transitional object is between vitality, warmth, mobility and inanimateness. For example teddy bear is not as alive as mother and not inanimate as other material objects. The distinction between animate and inanimate does not exist in concrete thought, these two are considered equivalent. In concrete thinking, features and actions are tightly bound to matter or the body. This makes man dependent on all living and inanimate objects around him. This, functions as a continuation this dependency and bonds in situations of separation.
Winnicott suggested that in order for the object to be used, it must be able to withstand the child's aggression and survive in the outside world. The mother could withstand this aggression if she is vital. Transitional objects are usually toys that can withstand aggression and are not easily broken or eaten. Its resistance to attacks makes the transitional object a real and "living creature" of the outside world.
Anality
It also includes obstinacy and a counter cathexis in the concretization of the transitional object. There is an effort to maintain control over both the transitional object and the mother. "Who is right?" or “Who says it will be?” questions are answered in favour of the child and at the same time with a description of “This is playing.” open the transitional space for fantasy and play. These questions are about anality. Actually the transitional object is like poop. As in the struggle that whether or not he poops, the child experiences a different form of stubbornness with the mother with the transitional object. This time he does not have to leave the object and can do this with the transitional object what he could not do with his poop. He can hold and control it constantly. The fact that he wins this stubbornness and that it is a play opens a transitional area for the child. When the child identifies with the mother who opens this transitional area to him, he creates a transitional space in his own psyche.
Non-Mirroring Function
I think that the transitional object's inability to reflect and mirror emotions fulfils a need, as in mirroring. Child reflects the emotions that comes out in his relation with his mother. Non-mirroring creates the comfort and security of knowing that what the child project to the transitional object will not come back. Winnicott stated that taking a break from trying to test reality in the transitional area gives the child a rest. The non-mirroring and non-retaliation feature of the transitional object is also restful. Stefano Bolognini states that the transitional space allows the self and the non-self to connect without a threat of invasion. The transitional area, by its nature, reinforces the feeling of security. Transitional object can not hurt the child. It cannot move when exposed to paranoid projections. If the child is afraid, he can easily hide it somewhere. Concretization is a control tool, and non-mirroring reinforces the sense of security that controlling gives.
The abstinence state of the psychoanalyst is the ability to not mirror everything. Psychoanalysis has discovered and uses that the transference is enlivened and the analyst creates a transitional space in this way. Psychoanalysts are found lifeless and cold, they are criticized because of this but they know this inanimateness makes them alive in fantasy.
Organizing Transitional Experience
While the transitional object exists only in the mother-child relationship, the transitional space has place for multiple relationships. Now I will discuss how the transitional area created a beginning for human beings. Joseph Cancelmo called the interaction in the transitional area "an organizing transitional experience". The transitional area, in addition, provides solutions from the field of common experiences of the group and identity to psychical problems and the process of self-formation . Events such as birth, wedding and mourning are organized in the field of cultural transitional space. The transitional area is an environment in which individuals use their egos collectively. It creates the possibility of an ego-relatedness between the group members. In cases when the person cannot use his/her ego or his/her self is weakened, he/she uses the transitional area as if he/she receives the ego support of his/her parents. With the help of this organization, the ego regulates its connection with reality.
Illusion-Disillusionment-Creation of the New Illusion
The transitional object is on the way where the dissolution of the first illusion of omnipotence takes place and a new illusion is created by magical thought. This time the illusion will be concretized and experienced by the child. Winnicott wrote that “with the transitional object the child moves from control by magical omnipotence to control by manipulation and muscular strength.” In fact, this transition itself creates a transitional space. The progressions and regressions continue between omnipotence in phantasy and actual concrete omnipotence.
As the child begins to create his new magical illusion using objects, this time he identifies with his mother's way of creating the illusion. Other inanimate objects share the above roles of the transitional object in the magical thought that emerges with anality. While the objects of the outer world gain extraordinary features as transitional object in magical thinking, the child is not as dependent on these objects as his dependency to the transitional object. In magical thinking, the self and the object are still not completely separated, but this time the objects come under the domination of phantasy.
In an interview with a child, Winnicott explored the child's transitional object. He draws attention to the fact that a child with a sense of reality speaks as if he lacks the sense of reality while describing his transitional object. The boy begins to describe his purple rabbit with red eyes and says, “He still visits me. I love that he visits.” Even though the child is not using the transitional object at the time, the magical investment in it continues.
If I reverse the self-object relationship in Winnicott's patient's words, these words could be said of a loved one's grave who isn’t there as follows: “I still visit him. I love visiting him.” The transitional object teaches how one can organize a transitional space with those people around him while grieving all the separations in life. For the child, the main separation is related to the temporary absence of the mother, while for the adult, the main separation is related to the death of the parents. Death of Freud’s father had an effect on the creation of psychoanalysis as a transitional space.
Homo sapiens -as in the use of tools- started to live as human beings with the objects and ceremonies that he used for substitutes for his relatives whom he left.
In Hitchcock's Psycho, which Caldwell refers to, the Bates Motel was the place of a murderer who denied the loss of his mother and was unable to create a transitional space for his mourning. Norman who could not be separated from his mother, had tried to hide the tangible corpse of his mother at home and her incorporated representation inside his psyche.
In Anatolia, there are monuments left from 11.000 years ago by people who grieved the loss of their ancestors by creating a transitional space through art and mourning. It has recently found out that the first transitional areas at the beginning of human history are related to mourning. Klaus Schmidt, who researched Göbeklitepe, revealed with his findings that the main factor that formed civilization was not agriculture, but the effort to create a ceremonial, transitional area.
There are hunter animals, birds, insects and edible animals as well as a "teddy bear" relief on the 5 m. standing statues in Göbeklitepe. Schmidt thought that the depictions on the columns were a story to be told or that these animal depictions protected the statues. The totem statues in Göbeklitepe, which I believe are the first temples to commemorate deceased father leaders, are like transitional objects that give the illusion that fathers who are no longer there continue to live. In Freud's Totem and Taboo, he explained that the guilt created by the murder and defeat of the father constitutes the law. In Göbeklitepe, on the other hand, the commemoration of the deceased leaders formed the transitional area and the settled civilization. Tools were skilfully used, artistry and engineering had combined with group work. The effort to symbolize separation had organized humans as a group once again.
Like children who want to see their mother again when she is away, humans who go to monuments can see their leader's statues and remember that they had lived. Although the deceased is gone, totem statues allow the illusion that the lost ones are still there and can be remembered at will. The transitional object provides the same function.
We see in our grieving patients and in Norman what can happen if the transitional area is not formed. Problems arise if they can't find a transitional environment where they can talk about their loss. The lost person's incorporated representation can continue to live in the inner world of the person. This situation concretizes in life in different ways and traps the person in vicious repetition compulsions.
The main issue I focused on in this presentation was that what makes the transitional area psychically vital is that it allows for the progression and regression between the concrete and the abstract and for creativity. If separation can be symbolized in a transitional space, the concrete existence of the lost can be transformed into new creations and new relationships in endless variations.
References:
D. W. Winnicott, “Creativity and its Origins”, Playing and Reality, London, Routledge, 1971, s. 65-86.
Arieti, S. (1961) The Loss of Reality. Psychoanalytic Review 48:3-24
Wright K., (2018) “the irrepressible song” Donald W. Winnicott and the history of the Present: Understanding the Man and his Work, Ed. Angela Joyce, Karnac Books, Londra.
Maxine Anderson, (2012) “Absolute Truth And Unbearable Psychıc Paın” Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Concrete Experience, Ed. Allan Frosch Concretisation, reflective thought, and the emissary function of the dream, Karnac Books, Londra.
Bolognini S. “In Between Sameness And Otherness: The Analyst’s Words İn İnterpsychic Dialogue”
Kogan I, Cry of the Mute Children, Isaac
