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TRANSFORMATIONAL, CONSERVATIVE AND TERMINAL OBJECTS: THE APPLICATION OF BOLLAS'S CONCEPTS TO PRACTICE
Author(s) -
Mann Gabriela
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0118.2000.tb00553.x
Subject(s) - transformational leadership , psychic , psychology , interpretation (philosophy) , object (grammar) , flexibility (engineering) , epistemology , style (visual arts) , cognitive psychology , psychoanalysis , psychotherapist , cognitive science , social psychology , artificial intelligence , computer science , philosophy , linguistics , statistics , alternative medicine , mathematics , pathology , archaeology , history , medicine
ABSTRACT This paper focuses on Christopher Bollas's contributions to the understanding of transformations in object usage. Bollas has delineated numerous kinds of object usage but has not described the possible transformations that could occur as a result of psychotherapy. The author examines conservative and terminal objects, on the one hand, and transformational objects, on the other hand, as signifiers for the kinds of transformation that are likely to occur in psychotherapy. Two vignettes informed by Bollas's ideas will illustrate how the therapist can facilitate the patient’ s use of the therapeutic environment that‘transforms’ rather than‘conserves’ or‘terminates’ psychic evolution. The author describes how Bollas draws from diverse theoretical sources, particularly from Freud, Winnicott and Bion. The author also suggests that unrestricted use of different theoretical frameworks is consistent with Bollas's favoring free movement between different modes of interpretation. It is argued that this flexibility of moving between modalities is indeed the chief distinguishing characteristic of Bollas's therapeutic style.