Regressive Play| An Investigation of Regression in the Analytic Container

• Main Author: McCubbin, Courtney C.
• Language: EN
• Published: Pacifica Graduate Institute 2019
• Subjects: Behavioral psychology|Counseling Psychology
• Online Access: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=13426903

<p> This thesis is a heuristic, hermeneutic investigation into regression using the author's experience as a case study. Regressive play and the desire for deeper regression within the analytic container are explored, guided by the question: What is the experience of following one's impulse to regress to more and more primordial states, and what kind of psychological container is needed to facilitate that deepening both inter- and intrapersonally? The author details a history of regression beginning with Sigmund Freud and continuing to psychoanalyst Michael Balint's <i>basic fault,</i> object relations therapist Donald Winnicott's <i>regression to dependence, </i> and Jungian analyst Brian Feldman's <i>psychic skin.</i> The therapeutic role of play is explored. The analyst's response to regression and how it facilitates or hinders the client's ability to regress are presented. This thesis challenges the notion that regression should be discouraged within a psychoanalytic frame, instead suggesting ways the analyst may hold the regression elementally.</p><p>