ABSTRACT
This chapter explores conceptualizations of development commonly used in psychoanalysis. Most psychoanalytic models of development and change assume an orderly, sequential, and predetermined unfolding of psychological functions and structures. The worldview of nonlinear dynamics suggests new possibilities for the psychoanalytic model of change and development and invites confrontation with the adequacy of many widely accepted models. The study of nonlinear dynamics suggests alternatives to the sequential model. Anna Freud directly borrowed the idea that psychological development is sequential from his study of embryology. On a more psychological level, coherent personal and group narratives contribute to people's sense of organization, effectiveness, and meaning. Among major psychoanalytic thinkers, Freud uniquely suggested that the fact of development, rather than its particulars, deserves a central place in analytic thinking. The concept of developmental lines arose from the observation that the concordant development of id, ego, and superego, so beautifully outlined by Abraham, fit poorly with observations of children.
