INTERNAL OBJECT RELATIONS AND THE LOGIC OF THE UNCONSCIOUS

• Authors: Vasylchenko Andriy
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article explores internal objects as a kind of non-existent and analyses the role of internal objects and internal object relations in unconscious thinking. My aim is to outline a project of ‘logic of the unconscious’ based on object relations theory. Drawing on the approaches of Melanie Klein, Susan Isaacs, Joseph Sandler, Thomas Ogden, and Linda Brakel, I clarify unconscious thinking in terms of the notions of primary process and phantasy and explore the nature of internal objects as background phantasy figures. In addition, using psychoanalytically relevant clinical examples, I analyse condensation, displacement, and transference as primary mental operations and suggest that considering internal objects as abstract particulars helps to clarify their role in unconscious thinking. Finally, I formulate a project of the logic of the unconscious as a logic of object relations.

Keywords

EN

INTERNAL OBJECTS; LOGIC OF THE UNCONSCIOUS; OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Institute of Philosophy of Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic
• Journal: Organon F. medzinárodný časopis pre analytickú filozofiu
• Year: 2025
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 116 – 149

Contributors

author

Vasylchenko Andriy

• Department of Logic, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Jilská 1, Prague 1, 110 00, Czech Republic

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8531-656X

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2025.32201