Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
3-1983
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Psychology
Major Professor
Leonard Handler
Committee Members
Harold J. Fine, Kenneth Newton, Michael J. O'Connell, F. Stanley Lusby
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate several areas of controversy in the current psychoanalytic literature on the defense mechanism of splitting. The specific issues which were explored included: (1) if the defensive use of splitting is seen only in primitive disorders or if it is more universal in nature; (2) if splitting occurs following object integration and the development of the repressive barrier; (3) if the activation of aggressive drive derivatives constitute the necessary and sufficient conditions for the subsequent act of splitting; and (4) if splitting consistently occurs in the context of a constellation composed of object representations, self representations and linking affects.
Forty-eight subjects were seen for two sessions in a balanced design. In one session, subjects received four subliminal tachistoscopic exposures of a neutral stimulus message. In the other session, subjects received subliminal exposures of a "critical" stimulus message, designed to stimulate either aggressive drives, libidinal drives, symbiotic drives or conflicts over the loss of symbiotic union. A third set of exposures of the same critical message presented superliminally followed. After each of these three sets of exposures, subjects rated both themselves and their mothers on an adjective checklist.
The major results were that splitting was found to be induceable in normal, object-integrated subjects. Splitting was not found to be "replaced" by repression, nor was the experience of being split "mitigated" by repression. Aggressive, libidinal and symbiotic drive stimulation was found to produce splitting. The obtained splits occurred in either self or object representations but not necessarily in both.
It was concluded that splitting does occur throughout a range of pathology and is an active mechanism in normal populations. A distinct form of "normal" splitting was identified in this study. Three additional forms were discussed. An epigenetic relationship between the various forms of splitting, developmental levels in which each occur, boundary development and the defensive aims associated with each form of splitting was proposed by the author.
Recommended Citation
Mindes, David H., "The phenomenon of splitting in normal populations. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1983.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/13105