THE NEW YORK PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIETY & INSTITUTE:
WORKS IN PROGRESS
247 East 82nd St., between 2nd & 3rd, NY, NY
Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 8:30 p.m.
The Narcissism of Old Age
Dr. Anna Burton will discuss how responses to the aging process range from adaptation to severe pathology. In the mid-range, there remains a cohort for whom psychoanalytic psychotherapy is the treatment of choice. The defensive operations against a barrage of narcissistic insults and poignant losses indicate that it makes clinical sense to address an almost ubiquitous narcissistic imbalance early on. Two cases provide analytic observations relating to the body, the self-image, and the ego ideal-superego. One can regard these patients as “virtual” or “faux” narcissists whose pathology, although more acute, more reactive and less malignant in nature, does resemble that of a true narcissistic character disorder. In both diagnostic groups, the crucial importance of the opening transference and the salience of the ego ideal shape the course of treatment in a way that suggests a recapitulation/furthering of narcissistic development. Object-relational and self-psychological points of view are essential, as well as the historical-metapsychological, in discussing the theories of treatment.
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