"It is generally accepted that patients with difficult or traumatic childhoods tend to unconsciously recreate these early dynamics in adult life. This phenomenon is captured by Freud's concept of repetition compulsion -the drive to re-enact unresolved conflicts with new partners who resemble early objects. In practice, it may manifest as repeatedly choosing individuals who echo aspects of past figures, thereby offering another chance, however doomed, to master longstanding conflicts."
"Often, the relational histories of these patients are so dramatic that the therapist has a sense that the patient is the unluckiest person alive for having been involved with so many bad others. Some may even come to believe that the successful treatment of these patients merely involves helping the patient select better objects. Indeed, much self-help and pop psychology material on these subjects makes such a claim: what is needed for these patients is simply more supportive and validating others."
A significant minority of psychotherapy patients present with chronic relational instability characterized by longstanding chaotic interpersonal relationships. Many meet criteria for Cluster B personality disorders, commonly borderline personality disorder, or carry diagnoses of complex posttraumatic stress disorder. Relational histories often involve dramatic harmful partnerships that lead clinicians to view patients as repeatedly unlucky in object choice. Popular remedies propose that more supportive and validating others will resolve the problem. Such an approach is overly simplistic, clinically unhelpful, and conceptually unsound; it can partially state a truism but may reinforce dynamics that perpetuate illness. Repetition compulsion drives patients to recreate early relational patterns with new partners, offering recurrent, often doomed chances to master unresolved conflicts.
#interpersonal-instability #borderline-personality-disorder #repetition-compulsion #object-relations #complex-ptsd
Read at Psychology Today
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