Beyond Eight-Month Anxiety

Journal title PSICOANALISI
Author/s Anne-Marie Sandler
Publishing Year 2019 Issue 2018/2 Language Italian
Pages 21 P. 43-63 File size 209 KB
DOI 10.3280/PSI2018-002004
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The ideas in this paper take as their point of departure the concept of eight-month anxiety (or stranger anxiety) observed and written about by René Spitz, with whose name the concept of eight-month anxiety is indissolubly linked (1950), (1965a). Following a discussion of some aspects of this phenomenon, the Author presents a clinical material from an adult psychoanalytic case in order to demonstrate a striking correspondence between an adult mode of functioning and the "stranger anxiety" of the infant.

Keywords: Eight-month anxiety, separation, self, object, refuelling

  1. Ambrose J.A. (1961). The development of the smiling response in early infancy. In: Foss B.M. (ed.), Determinants of Infant Behaviour, vol. 1. New York: Wiley.
  2. Benjamin J.D. (1963). Further comments on some developmental aspects of anxiety. In: Gaskill H.S. (ed.), Counterpoint. New York: Int. Univ. Press.
  3. Brazelton T.B., Tronick E., Adamson L. (1975). Early mother-child reciprocy. In: Parent-Infant Interaction (Ciba Foundation Symposium 33, New Series). Amsterdam: Elsevier, Exc. Med.
  4. Decarie T.G. (1974). The Infant’s Reaction to Strangers. New York: Int. Univ. Press.
  5. Deutsch H. (1942). Some forms of emotional disturbance and their relationship to schizophrenia. Psychoanal. Q., 11: 301-321.
  6. Festinger L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson.
  7. Goldstein K. (1942). Brain Injuries in War. London: Heinemann.
  8. Mahler M., Pine F., Bergman A. (1975). The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant. New York: Basic Books.
  9. Sandler J. (1960). The background of safety. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 41: 352-356.
  10. Spitz R.A. (1950). Anxiety in infancy: a study of its manifestation in the first year of life. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 31: 138-143.
  11. Spitz R.A. (1959). A Genetic Field Theory of Ego. New York: Int. Univ. Press.
  12. Spitz R.A. (1963). Life and the dialogue. In: Gaskill H.S. (ed.), Counterpoint. New York: Int. Univ. Press.
  13. Spitz R.A. (1964). The derailment of dialogue: stimulus overload, action cycles and the completion gradient. J. Am. Psychoanal. Ass., 12: 752-775.
  14. Spitz R.A. (1965a). The First Year of Life. New York: Int. Univ. Press.
  15. Spitz R.A. (1965b). The evolution of the dialogue. In: Schur M. (ed.), Drives, Affects, Behavior, vol. 2. New York: Int. Univ. Press.
  16. Spitz R.A., Wolf K.M. (1946). The smiling response. Genet. Psychol. Monogr., 34: 57-125.
  17. Winnicott D.W. (1956). On transference. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 37: 386-388.
  18. Wolff P.H. (1963). Observations on the early development of smiling. In: Foss B.M. (ed.), Determinants of Infant Behaviour, vol. 2. New York: Wiley.

Anne-Marie Sandler, Al di là dell’"angoscia dell’ottavo mese" in "PSICOANALISI" 2/2018, pp 43-63, DOI: 10.3280/PSI2018-002004