A developmental metatheory of psychopathology

Abstract

The author proposes an integrative model of psychopathology in light of the contemporary need to bridge diverse ideological frameworks. This model has its major foundations in drive, ego, object relations, and self psychoanalytic perspectives as they impact upon interactional patterns of infancy. The chronology of these theoretical orientations is presented as parallel to a changing focus upon different successive stages in the course of individual development. The longstanding controversy between conflict and deficit theories, which undergirds the various schools of thought, is addressed: a developmental orientation is offered as the overriding conceptual connection between them. Conflict and deficit phenomena are regarded as intertwined and not incompatible: Unconscious drives, desires and wishes, ego defenses, and compromise formations as well as object relationship deficiencies and structural voids and defects in the self are combined to encompass a broad spectrum of psychopathology and its sources: the above intrapsychic and interpersonal factors are interfaced with significant reciprocal dyadic (mother/child) and triadic (father/mother/child) influences upon ongoing maturational processes. For heuristic purposes, a fourfold matrix--dyadic deficit, dyadic conflict, triadic deficit, and triadic conflict--is delineated. Clinical characteristics and developmental precursors of each of the four prototypes, especially with regard to early relational events, are examined.