ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book shows that N. Chomsky’s concept of linguistic deep structure provides a useful analog for the understanding of the Melanie Klein conception of “phylogenetic inheritance of ideas.” It focuses on patients who are involved in making a transition from a predominantly paranoid-schizoid mode of organizing experience to a depressive mode of organizing experience. The book proposes internal object relations be thought of as paired, split-off and repressed aspects of ego. It seeks to clarify, interpret, and extend aspects of the work of Donald Winnicott, including his conception of the development of the mother-infant. The work of both Freud and Klein focused on the nature of psychological contents, functions and structures and their intrapsychic and interpersonal manifestations. This concept is perhaps the most important of Donald Winnicott contributions to psychoanalysis and at the same time the most elusive of his ideas.
