Margaret Mahler

Biography

After medical studies in Pediatry in Germany, it settles with Vienna where it is made analyze by Helene Deutsch. With Anna Freud, it creates a processing center for children in Vienna (first center of infantile guidance) and also works with August Aichhorn and Dorothy Burlingham.

The thesis of Mahler is based on the theory freudienne Pulsion S and stages of the of libido development ; it integrates there the contributions of the Ego-psychology, in particular the concept of the " me autonomous primitif". The phase of separation-individuation: two “lines of development” (Anna Freud) mark this phase while following the tendencies of maturation: the Separation, like catch of distance and detachment of with the mother, and the Individuation, like evolution of the autonomous functions (memory, perceptions, capacities cognitive). There still, the Interactions mother/child play a key role.

The rise of the Nazisme will force it to exile itself with the the United States where it will continue work on the infantile Psychose S while being particularly attentive with the question of the Individuation, distinguishing two types of infantile psychoses, the psychosis autistic and the symbiotic that it puts in parallel with normal stages of development of the infant.

Thereafter, Mrs. Mahler will publish in 1975 human Symbiose and individuation : psychological birth of the human being. In this work resulting from empirical research and observations carefully consigned on grids of quotation, Mahler works out a series of stages of the development of the human being seen under the angle of the relational distance between the child and his mother. Its sights had much success even if one can consider that they raise more Psychologie than of the Psychanalyse itself.

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