Affect Regulation: Holding, Containing and Mirroring

TY - JOUR

T1 - Affect Regulation

T2 - Holding, Containing and Mirroring

AU - Pedersen, Signe Holm

AU - Poulsen, Stig Bernt

AU - Lunn, Susanne

PY - 2014/10/1

Y1 - 2014/10/1

N2 - Gergely and colleagues' state that their "Social Biofeedback Theory of Parental Affect Mirroring" can be seen as a kind of operationalization of the classical psychoanalytic concepts of holding, containing and mirroring. This article examines to what extent the social biofeedback theory of parental affect mirroring may be understood as a specification of these concepts. It is argued that despite similarities at a descriptive level the concepts are embedded in theories with different ideas of subjectivity. Hence an understanding of the concept of affect regulation as a concretization and specification of the classical concepts dilutes the complexity of both the concept of affect regulation and of the classical concepts.

AB - Gergely and colleagues' state that their "Social Biofeedback Theory of Parental Affect Mirroring" can be seen as a kind of operationalization of the classical psychoanalytic concepts of holding, containing and mirroring. This article examines to what extent the social biofeedback theory of parental affect mirroring may be understood as a specification of these concepts. It is argued that despite similarities at a descriptive level the concepts are embedded in theories with different ideas of subjectivity. Hence an understanding of the concept of affect regulation as a concretization and specification of the classical concepts dilutes the complexity of both the concept of affect regulation and of the classical concepts.

U2 - 10.1111/1745-8315.12205

DO - 10.1111/1745-8315.12205

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 25351730

SN - 0020-7578

VL - 95

SP - 843

EP - 864

JO - International Journal of Psychoanalysis

JF - International Journal of Psychoanalysis

IS - 5

ER -