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Splitting, attachment and instrumental rationality. A re-view of Menzies Lyth's social criticism

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Abstract

In this article the author argues that the fruitful conceptual innovations in Menzies Lyth's 1960 study of nurses, in particular her development of the concept of splitting, was achieved through her synthesis of Kleinian psychoanalytic thinking and attachment theory. This move allowed her to situate the psychoanalytic subject and to present what could be read as an original critique of instrumental rationality, although insufficient attention to power relations constitutes a flaw in this conceptual approach.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Lynne Layton for her thoughtful comments on an earlier version of this article and also Andrea Gabler and Arne Johan Vetlesen for their inspiring verbal responses to a previously presented paper on Menzies Lyth.

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  1. 14b England's Lane, London, NW3 4TG, UK

    Lene Auestad

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  1. Lene Auestad
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Auestad, L. Splitting, attachment and instrumental rationality. A re-view of Menzies Lyth's social criticism. Psychoanal Cult Soc 16, 394–410 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/pcs.2010.33

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