ABSTRACT
The first chapter presents what I have termed the traditions of defensive and restorative regression (Rizzolo, 2016). The defensive tradition frames regression as a retreat from the dangers of forward development. The restorative tradition frames regression, by contrast, as a primary (non-defensive) pull toward a restorative object relationship. I discuss the first tradition, which originates in Freud, the second tradition, which originates in Ferenczi, and integrationists, like Balint, Winnicott and Kohut, who constructed developmental tilt models (Mitchell, 1988) to house both potential regressions.
