Poisonous prevention as defensive repair against the threat of unbearable reparation

the more severe aspects of depressive guilt

Abstract

This paper takes a Kleinian psychoanalytic view of two clinical reports to investigate patients who do not allow themselves to have a say in life and see prevention of harm to others as a constant and necessary task. They stand on alert to vigilantly eliminate any risk of improper behavior. For the first patient, much of his psychological struggle was an internalization of harsh demands for excellence from a primary care-taker.But, now, this patient has taken on the rigid legacy and continued to hold himselfaccountable for any and all shortcomings. With the second patient, he has always felt his desire for more connection with his object will only create hurt and trouble. Loss of love,guilt, and harming others without knowledge are some of the main anxieties. For both patients, there is no forgiveness for flaw, need, or unanticipated difference. To be oneself is dangerous to others and, via retaliation, dangerous to self.Acceptance of self as fallible but still lovable is impossible and forgiveness of self was seen as careless, selfish, and dangerous. Through projective identification, the object is then unbending and un-reachable via compassion or reparation. Thus, prevention of hurtand elimination of any unknown reactions is the necessary goal. The first case is far more severe and resistant while the second case shows considerable analytic progress. Both patients report their memories of mistakes throughout their lives were mentally logged as evidence of greedy, thoughtless actions that drove others to hate them or reject them. The loss of love and the fear of guilt fueled both patients to rely on a death instinct neutralization of all feelings. Proper behavior was sought after by focusing on logical and concrete ways of relating. Transference and counter-transference dynamics are examined in the paper to better understand the more severe aspects of the depressive position and the avoidance of self-reparation. Indeed, instead of reparation, repair was the chief goal for these pa-tients, providing the illusion of eliminating all mistakes rather than forgiving themselves and having to realize the mistakes can never be erased but can be accepted as part ofthe human condition. A healthy striving to be better was replaced by the patient wanting to be perfect and neutral at all times.