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Program Description 

Anni Bergman’s later work regarding rapprochement is briefly considered and then used as a foundation for this reconsideration of rapprochement’s place in development over the lifespan. Resolving rapprochement challenges is seen as the central developmental process whereby one either utilizes or refuses the love and care one receives. A sense of safety in early life leads to the capacity to metabolize love and to the development of a secure attachment followed by libidinal object constancy. This developmental achievement sets the stage for caring relationships and optimal development over the lifespan. A predominant sense of danger in early life, either reality-based or based primarily on internal experience, leads to the development of an insecure attachment. Hostile object constancy, a form of self-regulation based on the anticipation of future danger, leads to the defensive refusal of the actual love and care one receives. Subsequent interference with the capacity for caring relationships leads to pathological development over the course of life. Successful psychological treatment involves helping the patient become open to loving connections. In addition, Anni intended her work to pave the way for a reconciliation of Attachment Theory and Separation-Individuation Theory. This integration is better conceptualized as Attachment-Individuation Theory, which highlights the unique contributions of each to a unified developmental process. This article aims to further this integration.  

About the Speaker 

William Singletary, MD, is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, a member of the faculty and supervising child analyst of the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia, and President of the Board of the Margaret S. Mahler Child Development Foundation. He is in private practice in Philadelphia, PA. A major focus of his work has been on understanding how building relationships contributes to changing the brain as well as our psychological structure and on developing the capacity to use available love as a major goal of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Currently, he and Timothy Rice recently published their paper, “Two diverging paths in psychological and neurobiological organization: Using or refusing love” as a Target Article in Neuropsychoanalysis. 

About the Discussant 
Irene Hurford, MD, graduated from the University of Toronto, and received her MD from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She did her residency at UCLA, and completed a two year research fellowship in San Diego. Dr. Hurford is on volunteer clinical faculty in the department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches and supervises residents. Dr. Hurford was founder and clinical director of the Psychosis Education, Assessment, Care, and Empowerment (PEACE) program at Horizon House, Inc, which has become a leading First-Episode Psychosis (FEP) program across the United States. Dr. Hurford is a candidate at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia, where she also teaches about psychotherapy for psychosis. She is currently in private practice where she specializes in the treatment of psychosis.