Early Writings 1923-1943
Alexander was a prolific writer. Between 'The Castration Complex in the Formation of Character ... Fundamental Concepts of Psychosomatic Research ' he published nearly twenty other articles, contributing on a wide variety of subjects to the work of the "second psychoanalytic generation".
'Alexander in his "vector analysis"...measur the relative participation of the three basic directions in which an organism's tendencies towards the external world may be effective: reception, elimination, and retention'. In this he may have been a forerunner to Erik H. Erikson's later exploration of 'Zones, Modes, and Modalities'.
He also explored the 'morality demanded by the archaic superego...an automatized pseudo morality, characterized by Alexander as the corruptibility of the superego'.
Notable too was his exploration of acting out in real life, 'in which the patient's entire life consists of actions not adapted to reality but rather aimed at relieving unconscious tensions. It was this type of neurosis that was first described by Alexander under the name of neurotic character'.
Read more about this topic: Franz Alexander
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