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Obsessions/Counter‐Obsessions: A Construction/Reconstruction of Meaning
Author(s) -
SHEINBERG MARCIA
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1988.00305.x
Subject(s) - premise , psychological intervention , meaning (existential) , situational ethics , psychology , conversation , social psychology , intervention (counseling) , relation (database) , epistemology , psychotherapist , communication , computer science , philosophy , database , psychiatry
In this article, obsessions and phobic responses are examined in relation to the maintenance and development of a cross‐generational coalition organized by a premise about exclusivity, as well as the specific, idiosyncratic “signature premises” characteristic to each case. It is suggested that the obsession develops when a developmental or situational crisis conflicts with the exclusive relationship definition (that is, coalition). Two forms of intervention for disrupting obsessions — the “conversation” and the “counter‐obsession”— are discussed and illustrated. Both interventions conceptualize the obsession as an oscillation between remaining in the coalition and not remaining in the coalition, and both interventions challenge the signature premise that defines the coalition.