Fearful Symmetry

Using data from infant observation, and child, adolescent, and adult analyses, the Novicks explicate a multidimensional, developmental theory of sadomasochism that has been recognized as a major innovation. According to the Novicks, each phase of development contributes to the clinical manifestations of sadomasochism. Painful experiences in infancy are transformed into a mode of attachment, then into an embraced marker of specialness and unlimited destructive power, then into a conviction of equality with oedipal parents, and, finally, into an omnipotent capacity to gratify infantile wishes through the coercion of others. By school age, these children have established a magic omnipotent system of thought which undermines alternate means of competent interactions with reality.

Chapter 1 Beating Fantasies in Children Chapter 2 The Essence of Masochism Chapter 3 Masochism and the Delusion of Omnipotence from a Developmental Perspective Chapter 4 Postoedipal Transformations: Latency, Adolescence, and Pathogenesis Chapter 5 Projection and Externalization Chapter 6 Varieties of Transference in the Analysis of an Adolescent Chapter 7 Externalization as a Pathological Form of Relating: The Dynamic Underpinnings of Abuse Chapter 8 Attempted Suicide in Adolescence: The Suicide Sequence Chapter 9 A "Boo Warning": Ego Disruption in an Abused Little Girl Chapter 10 "I Hate You for Saving My Life": Borrowed Trauma in the Analysis of a Young Adult Chapter 11 Talking with Toddlers Chapter 12 Negative Therapeutic Motivation and Negative Therapeutic Alliance Chapter 13 Deciding on Termination: The Relevance of Child and Adolescent Analytic Experience to Work with Adults Chapter 14 Termination: A Case Report of the End Phase of an "Interminable" Analysis Chapter 15 Sadomasochism and the Therapeutic Alliance: Implications for Clinical Technique