Psychology Research Digest
Psychoanalytic Psychology - Vol 43, Iss 1
Psychoanalytic Psychology serves as a resource for original contributions that reflect and broaden the interaction between psychoanalysis and psychology.
Personality and narcissism in emerging adults: Complex interactions and implications.
This study investigates the interplay between personality organization, narcissistic configurations, and the subjective experience of emerging adulthood (ages 18–29), contextualized by socioeconomic factors. Drawing on Kernberg’s psychostructural model, we analyzed data from 1,079 French emerging adults using the French version of the Inventory of Personality Organization, Pathological Narcissism Inventory, and Inventory of Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood. Cluster analysis identified four personality profiles: integrated (70.6%), neurotic (15.6%), high-functioning borderline (12.4%), and severely disorganized (1.4%). Key findings revealed that 29.4% of participants exhibited personality impairments, with economically inactive/unemployed individuals overrepresented in pathological clusters. Structural personality impairment correlated positively with both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism supporting their intertwined nature as compensatory mechanisms for identity instability. Higher Inventory of Personality Organization scores predicted heightened negativity/instability (Inventory of Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood) and reduced identity exploration, underscoring the role of identity diffusion in maladaptation. Socioeconomic status moderated these relationships, with unemployment or inactivity exacerbating narcissistic defenses and psychosocial distress. Notably, narcissistic traits diminished with age, suggesting improved identity coherence and social integration over time. The study highlights the dual role of narcissism—adaptive in moderate forms but pathological when rooted in identity fragmentation—and emphasizes the need for interventions targeting socioeconomic barriers and identity consolidation. Limitations include self-report biases, gender imbalance (71.92% male), and cross-sectional design, urging future longitudinal and clinically validated research. These findings advance understanding of how structural personality vulnerabilities and contextual factors shape the challenges of transitioning to adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 28 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Unraveling the roots of paranoid thinking: The role of childhood maltreatment, failures in mentalizing, and defense mechanisms.
Paranoid thinking is characterized by an unwarranted mistrust and suspicion of others, often culminating in beliefs that others intend to cause harm. This type of thinking can vary from within normal limits to pathological extremes, where it manifests as intense fears of persecution, conspiracy, or betrayal that severely affect mental and relational functioning. In the psychoanalytic literature, paranoid thinking has been linked to experiences of parental humiliation, failures in reflective functioning, and primitive defense mechanisms such as projection and splitting. This study aimed to test a model of paranoid thinking where the relationship between childhood maltreatment and paranoid thinking is mediated by uncertainty about mental states and primitive defenses. A sample of 461 adults (142 males, 30.8%), aged 18 to 69 years, completed self-report measures on child maltreatment, failures in mentalizing, defense mechanisms, and paranoid thinking. A serial mediation analysis showed that child maltreatment positively predicted paranoid thinking, with this relationship being partially mediated by uncertainty about mental states and primitive defenses. The findings suggest that in treating individuals with paranoid thinking, clinicians should focus not only on working through traumatic memories but also on enhancing mentalizing abilities and promoting the use of more mature defense mechanisms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 28 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Traumatic human movement in the Rorschach: Empirical findings on traumatic mentalization among children.
Human movement responses (M) are traditionally described as a major Rorschach variable which is related to psychological abilities of mentalization, regulation, and empathy. However, different studies described elevation of M in the Rorschach of trauma victims. The present study aimed to assess a different quality of M responses that are associated with traumatic experiences and thus define a new empirical variable of traumatic human movement response (trauM). We compared Rorschach trauM responses of three clinical groups of 104 children: complex trauma, single trauma, and nontraumatized patients. As expected, we found a higher frequency of trauM in complex trauma than in single trauma and a higher frequency of trauM in single trauma than in nontraumatized patients. In addition, the trauM had a larger effect size than the Critical Contents in its ability to differentiate between complex trauma and nontraumatized patients and between single trauma and nontraumatized patients. We concluded that the trauM is an important index in the assessment of trauma in children and suggested that this variable reflects a certain mental activity of “traumatic mentalization.” Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 09 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Exploring writing and publishing as sinthomatic practices in the process of recovery after episodes of psychosis.
This study examined the lived experiences of how, for seven individuals, language and writing serve as multifaceted and pivotal tools in shaping subjectivity and providing a means of navigating through the challenges of psychosis. Grounded in Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, the research delves into the understanding of psychosis, emphasizing the linguistic constitution of the human psyche and the foreclosure of the Name-of-the-Father. Through a comprehensive and cocreative analysis of the literature and qualitative interviews, this article illustrates how writing and publishing can act as both therapeutic and creative outlets—means of expressing and managing the overwhelming “jouissance” associated with psychotic experiences, while enabling (re)connection to the social world. The findings reveal that, for some individuals, writing and publishing offer a unique pathway by functioning as a stabilizing “sinthomatic” solution. This study contributed to the broader understanding of psychosis and offered valuable insights into the therapeutic potential of writing, thus informing future psychoanalytic and clinical practices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 15 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Identification with the hated object in a case of pedophilic fantasies.
According to recent global studies, pedophilic interests affect approximately 1%–5% of the male population, with online exploitation materials increasing by 50% in the past decade (Meter Association, 2025). The case study analyzes the role of a sexually perverse organization in structuring the treatment of a patient, pseudonymously referred to as John, while exploring innovative psychoanalytical approaches. John’s traumatic early history and unconscious identification with the aggressor seemed life defining and constituted a significant barrier to his engagement in analysis. His pedophilic perversion kept his psychotic side at bay while bringing perverse excitement to his deadly internal world. He could not reflect on but reenact his trauma in the analytic relationship. As his analyst, I was able to initiate exploration of John’s self, which he had not previously considered. First, John was allowed to perceive me, and then both John and I needed to begin contemplating the unprocessed, traumatic experiences in the struggle to move them into conscious awareness. Even though it was an exhausting and time-consuming effort, the process enabled John to turn an evidently one-person situation into a two-person relationship. The article examines the developmental origins, dynamics, and technical challenges of working with pedophilic fantasy through the lens of contemporary psychoanalytic theory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 11 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>The meaning of a home: Decolonizing the dyad in developmental theory, research, and clinical practice.
Psychoanalytic developmental theories envision diverse models of infancy, yet betray what Gaztambide (2024), writing from a decolonial perspective, calls a “primarily interpersonal, dyadic logic” (p. 112, emphasis original), theorizing development as essentially about “two people,” foreclosing how early caregiving and the therapeutic relationship are embedded in wider social worlds. This “dyadic default” theorizes within a “two-person” framework that precludes social context, leaving clinicians with questions about whether they should focus on attachment dynamics versus sociocultural context—or emphasize one while neglecting the other. This article works through developmental theory that reflects on both the relational and the sociocultural, making room for communal forms of care (Keller & Chaudhary, 2017), clarifying questions about the sociocultural in clinical work, and shedding light on intervention beyond the therapeutic relationship (González & Peltz, 2021). In effect, its goal is to decolonize the isolated dyad by reembedding development within the wider networks of culture, social systems, and values within which they exist. The article begins by illustrating these tensions in contemporary psychoanalytic theory and then explores research on dyadic and collectivistic modes of caregiving across different cultures, concluding with an integrated account of attachment that makes room for both the relational and the sociocultural in theory and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 28 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Skin tone fantasies, colorism, and the therapeutic relationship.
While there has been a notable increase in conversation about race and racism in the psychoanalytic literature, skin tone and colorism have received less attention. For patients who have Indian heritage, lighter and darker skin tones can have multiple meanings in various contexts, including within the family, the Indian ethnic community, the social communities they interact with, and the larger sociopolitical context of the United States in which White and lighter skin is idealized and privileged. Exploring skin tone fantasies in psychotherapy can be a meaningful intervention to address racial and ethnic identity development, intrapsychic conflicts, interpersonal dynamics, and racial and skin tone trauma (Landor & McNeil Smith, 2019; Tummala-Narra, 2007). Skin tone biases and colorism within the Indian diaspora and in the United States are addressed within a historical, sociocultural context. Psychoanalytic ideas are discussed to understand the complex meanings, feeling states, enactments, and defenses that skin tone and colorism can raise for the patient and therapist who have shared Indian heritage. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 06 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>The perils of analytic insularity and the neglected dimension of patients’ treatment of others.
This article examines a critical asymmetry in psychoanalytic practice: The focus on how patients are treated rather than how they treat the people in their lives. It elucidates how this asymmetric attention emerges from structural features of the psychoanalytic setting that can obscure the analyst’s understanding of patients’ interpersonal functioning. Central ideas to be explored include the potential negative side effects of empathy; the perils of the analytic relationship’s insularity; epistemic zealousness when extrapolating dynamics from the analytic relationship to patients’ other relationships; and the ways in which dominant narratives about patients can be self-serving for both patients and analysts. As will be discussed, these factors may lead the analyst to privilege particular narratives that overlook patients’ possible negative contributions to their relationships. Clinical examples and recommendations will be offered to counteract these structural vulnerabilities in the analytic situation. Ultimately, this article suggests that psychoanalysis’s greatest strength—providing profound access to patients’ subjectivity—may also constitute a limitation in understanding patients’ full relational impact. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Visible, yet vulnerable: Psychodynamic psychotherapy trainees’ experiences of video review in supervision.
The use of video review (VR) in clinical supervision is recommended by psychodynamically oriented scholars and practitioners alike, but little is known about how psychodynamic psychotherapy trainees subjectively experience VR. Thus, the purpose of this study was to illuminate psychotherapy trainees’ perceptions of VR in psychodynamic supervision and the way in which VR subjectively impacts the supervisory alliance as well as trainees’ competency development. A qualitative interview study was conducted with N = 14 psychotherapy trainees from a psychodynamic training institute in Germany. Semistructured interviews with trainees were audio recorded, verbatim transcribed, and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results indicate that VR influences the perceived supervision process with regard to content, structure, and the supervisory alliance. Psychodynamic trainees described that by engaging in VR, they honed core psychodynamic skills. This process was embedded in an inherent conflictual theme of VR usage: increased visibility of the therapeutic self and the related shame proneness, but also the courage to reveal oneself via VR and the potential to deepen the supervisory work. We offer a self-psychological perspective on these findings, proposing that trainee selfobject needs for mirroring may become more salient through VR. Results attest to an attunement of psychodynamic psychotherapy trainees to the changes and benefits that VR introduces to psychodynamic supervision. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 28 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Overcoming bias in graduate student perceptions of psychodynamic therapy.
Despite a growing body of literature demonstrating the effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy, there remains widespread bias against psychodynamic theory and the evidence base for psychodynamic treatment of various kinds. This bias contributes to a lack of diversity in the field of psychology that threatens psychological research through an unhealthy intellectual monoculture. Downstream, the bias also limits patients’ access to diverse treatment options available in the public sector. Government funding and insurance reimbursements favor short-term behavioral interventions and psychopharmacology, and those on public insurance often cannot afford the diverse treatment options available in private practice. Graduate training is a key factor in shaping trainees’ perceptions of various psychotherapy models, and this influence carries on into their careers. There is limited research into graduate psychodynamic pedagogy. This mixed methods study investigates student perceptions of psychodynamic practice after taking a doctoral-level semester-long course on the subject. Results suggest that although some negative perceptions linger, students do report many positive changes in their perceptions. Despite a large majority of students consciously identifying with a theoretical orientation other than psychodynamic, students blindly reported using more psychodynamic techniques than cognitive–behavioral techniques in their own practice. This discordance between theoretical identity and actual practice speaks to lingering bias against psychodynamic therapy even among those who use psychodynamic techniques in their practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 06 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Review of Holding the space between: A review of the claustro-agoraphobic dilemma in psychoanalysis.
Reviews the book Holding the Space Between: A Review of The Claustro-Agoraphobic Dilemma (2022). This review draws on the reviewer's clinical experience working with claustro-agoraphobic presentations in analysis. Here, the reviewer employ the framework provided by this volume to illuminate and shape these experiences. The book offers conceptual language to better understand the emotional dynamics, technical challenges, and subtle relational pressures that emerge in this work. By reflecting on these resonances, the reviewer aims to articulate how the volume’s insights have enriched their thinking and practice. The Claustro-Agoraphobic Dilemma in Psychoanalysis is a nuanced and intellectually rigorous volume that rewards careful reading. Drawing on a wide range of clinical material and theoretical perspectives, it explores the everyday dilemmas faced by analysts: how to sustain a therapeutic stance that allows psychic space without overwhelming or abandoning the patient. It challenges us to consider how to remain emotionally available without intruding, interpret without attacking, and hold complexity without prematurely resolving it. The volume prompts deep reflection on our patients and ourselves—our tolerance for ambiguity, our desire to provide certainty, and our capacity to stay emotionally attuned in the face of withdrawal, projection, and psychic evacuation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 23 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Review of The legacy and promise of Hans Loewald.
Reviews the book, The Legacy and Promise of Hans Loewald by Rosemary H. Balsam, Elizabeth A. Brett, and Lawrence Levenson (see record 2025-35400-000). This review examines Balsam et al. (2025), a 13-chapter volume dedicated to advancing the legacy of Hans W. Loewald, a pivotal yet underrecognized figure in American psychoanalysis. The editors revisit Loewald’s innovative reframing of Freudian theory, highlighting his capacity to revitalize classical concepts without founding a separate school of thought. Organized into three sections—intellectual history, philosophical foundations, and clinical applications—the book situates Loewald within the rigid psychoanalytic climate of his era and underscores his enduring relevance amid contemporary existential challenges. Through contributions from leading scholars, the volume illustrates Loewald’s transformative ideas on analytic process, theory, and temporality, calling for their deeper integration into psychoanalytic discourse today. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 17 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Review of Mentalizing in Psychodynamic and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Basics, Applications, Case Studies.
Reviews the book, Mentalizing in Psychodynamic and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Basics, Applications, Case Studies by J. Brockmann et al. (2025). This book provides a helpful overview of mentalization-based therapy (MBT), the evidence-based treatment approach combining both individual and group work originally created to treat severe personality disorders but now expanded to a wider range of psychopathologies (depression, trauma, addiction, sex addiction, eating disorders, antisocial personality, and even psychosis). Brockmann et al. have written a fair-minded book that both MBT therapists and psychoanalysts can learn from and appreciate. They make a good effort to assess strengths and weaknesses in both theories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
- Plutarch, Moral Essays: How the Young Man Should Study Poetry (1st century AD)
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