ABSTRACT
The chapter explores five basic concepts used throughout the book. The concepts are explored and developed theoretically for readers with interest in theory, for students at master’s programmes at universities, leadership courses etc. 1: The unconscious: The unconscious is one of the most well-known and important psychoanalytical concepts. The function and content of the id, ego, super-ego, the dynamics of the repetition compulsion, and the supressed and the experienced unconscious are explored. 2: Anxiety: Psychoanalytical understanding of anxiety is introduced. Defences against anxiety, defence mechanisms and social defences against anxiety are described and developed. 3: Libido: Libido is a vital drive and a key concept in the definition of love. Libido must be understood in a broad sense as the basis of life – and has to do with engagement, will, ability to overcome difficult periods in life and take care. 4: Projection, projective and perceptive identification: As projection and projective identification may appear well-known for some readers, perceptive identification, as Bollas defines it, adds valuable knowledge to the understanding of the ability to love the other. 5: Inner and outer self: The concept of inner and outer self is developed at the basis of Winnicott’s concepts true and false self.
