Recognising the compensatory or defensive nature of competitive behaviour via dynamics in the intersubjective field : a case study

• Main Author: Fielding, Ann
• Other Authors: Swartz, Sally
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2014
• Subjects: Clinical Psychology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10482

Includes bibliography. === In this dissertation I explore the underlying psychological function of the competitive behaviour of an 11-year-old boy, whom I treated in individual psychotherapy. I postulate that his competitiveness functioned partly as a self-invigorating compensation, and partly as a defense against an injury to the self. I emphasize the fact that it is difficult, in practice, to recognize compensatory versus defensive structures in that the behaviour and affect fluctuates such that these internal structures are at times helpful to the patient, and at times harmful in the sense that they obscure the underlying self injury. I suggest that inclusion of the intersubjective field was essential in assisting me, as the therapist, to recognize the defensive or compensatory nature of the patient's affect and behaviour at any given time. Thus, the intersubjective field is included - my responses, the personal material evoked and the relationship dynamic between the patient and I - as an essential aspect of working with the patient's competitiveness.