PRIMARY TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE OF THE WORLD OR PRIMARY LOVE - 2 ANTHROPOLOGICAL BASIC ASSUMPTIONS IN PSYCHOANALYSIS

Classical insight therapy, derived from Freud, and 'maternal' holding therapy, derived from Balint, Winnicott and others, are two contrastin g treatment techniques in psychoanalysis. The authors believe that eac h of these two techniques presupposes specific philosophical basic ass umptions about the nature of human beings. The position of Freud is th at of the basically traumatic character of human experience. The contr a-position of the object relation psychologists stipulates the priorit y of love in human experience. These assumptions seem to be more laten t than overt guidelines of therapeutical techniques and therefore thei r reconstruction and reformulation have important implications for psy choanalytical therapy.