Repetition and Trauma: Toward A Teleonomic Theory of Psychoanalysis

189 Pages·1988·6.278 MB·English

by  Max M. Stern, Liselotte Bendix Stern

Repetition and Trauma

Toward a Teleonomic Theory of Psychoanalysis
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Repetition and Trauma

Toward a Teleonomic Theory of Psychoanalysis
by
Max M. Stern
edited by
Liselotte Bendix Stem
with an introduction by
Fred M. Levin
(cid:10)

THE ANALYTIC PRESS
1988 Hillsdale, NJ Hove and London
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Copyright ©1988 by The Analytic Press
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Printed in the United States of America
by Braun-Brumfield,I nc.,A nn Arbor,M I
Ubrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stern,M.
Repetition and trauma.
Includes bibliographies and indexes.
1. Psychic trauma. 2. Nighmares.
3. Dreams. 4. Developmental psychobiology. 5.
Freud,S igmund,1 856-1939. I. Stern, Uselotte Ben­
dix. II. Title. [DNLM: 1. Human Development.
2. Psychoanalytic Theory. 3. Stress,P sychologi­
cal.WM 460 S8392r]
BF175.5.P75S74 1988 150.19'5 88-10395
ISBN 0.88163-073-X
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vn
Editor's Preface ix

Author's Preface xi

Bibliography of Max M. Stern, M.D. xiii

Introduction by Fred Levin, M.D. 1

Chapter 1. Pavor Nocturnus 39

2. Regression Explanations 69

3. Trauma and the Repetition Compulsion 93

4. Reparative Mastery 115

5. The Teleonomic Principle 137

References 149

Author Index 155

Subject Index 159

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Acknowledgments
I
wish to express my gratitude to the following persons
who aided me in the revision of the last draft of Dr. Stern's
manuscript. Foremost, my thanks go to Mr. Nick Cariello,
who restructured a sprawling work and laid out Dr. Stern's
ideas with sensitive understanding; to Dr. Paul Stepansky,
of The Analytic Press, whose constructive, critical comments
after first reading the 1982 version enabled me to recognize
the revisions that were needed. I also want to express my
gratitude to the institutions and the librarians and staff of the
institutions who extended their services to me so that I could
complete the necessary bibliographic research: the librarians
and staff of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and
Society; the late Phyllis Rubinton, formerly Librarian of the
A. A. Brill Library of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute,
who also permitted me to use the facilities of the Oskar
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viii Acknowledgments
Diethelm Library of the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic
after she became head librarian there; her successor at the
Brill Library, Ms. Ellen Gilbert. My special thanks to Ms.
Jeanette Taylor, Assistant Librarian of the Brill Library, who
not only met my bibliographic needs and obtained numerous
interlibrary loans, but also lent a sympathetic ear to my many
doubts in completing the project and also gave me moral
support and encouragement; my thanks to my friends and
colleagues in the biomedical libraries, who graciously al­
lowed me to use their facilities when my search led me
beyond the psychoanalytic literature. Thanks also to Mr.
Gilbert J. Clausman, the former Librarian of New York
University Medical Center, and Ms. Eleanor E. Pasmick,
Associate Librarian, who kindly permitted me to read in the
library and trusted me enough to let me roam the stacks
freely; Mr. Eric Meyerhoff, formerly Director of the Samuel J.
Wood Library at Cornell University Medical College, and his
staff; Ms. Mary Mylenki, formerly Librarian at the Oskar
Diethelm Library, Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, and
currently Associate Director of the Greater Northeast Re­
gional Medical Library Center of the National Library of
Medicine; Ms. Lee Mackler, Director of the Emil A. Gutheil
Library at the Post Graduate Center for Mental Health. My
thanks go also to my family and friends, who have been so
patient and understanding in tolerating my preoccupation
with completing this project. Most of all, my gratitude goes
to my husband, the late Max M. Stern, who daily shared the
thoughts expressed in this book with me and let me partic­
ipate in his work, which so greatly expanded my horizons
and allowed me the satisfaction of becoming a part of his
life's work.
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Editor's Preface
S
hortly before his death in july 1982, Max M. Stern
completed the last draft of a manuscript that represented his
effort of some 25 years to investigate clinically and reformu­
late theoretically the correlation between biological and psy­
chological processes in human behavior. In 18 previously
published papers, he had argued that modern biological
principles required just such a reformulation of classical
psychoanalytic theory-not only the so-called metapsy­
chology but the clinical theory-in terms of which psycho­
analytic therapy was conducted. "Analysts," he wrote, "can
no longer shy away from the task of reformulation and
continue to cling to admittedly wrong postulates on the
ground that 'psychoanalytic clinicians would find it very
difficult to do without [them]' (Valenstein, 1968, p. 614)." At
the same time, he recognized that Repetition and Trauma
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