Silvan S. Tomkins (1911-1991)

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Paul C. Holinger | | |

This post describes the profound impact Silvan Tomkins had on our understanding of human emotions.  It was written in collaboration with Donald Nathanson, MD. 

 
“We do not possess a systematic statement of the psychoanalytic theory of affects” (Rappaport, 1953, p. 476).

“Tomkins began a limited revolution – a paradigm shift, in Kuhnian terms” (Knapp, 1987, p 221).

Freud “had no satisfactory hypothesis to account for affectivity in general… Adequate explanations were finally proposed by Tomkins” (Gedo, 2005, p. 90).

 
Working within the traditions of both Darwin and Freud, Silvan S. Tomkins fused evolutionary and psychodynamic concepts to describe the specific kinds of affects, their mechanism of action, and their development. Tomkins detailed the nature of affect itself and the triggers for each of the nine affects, demonstrating 1) the nature, development, and transformations of the affect system; 2) its virtually unlimited ideo-affective structure; 3) the importance of affect as the source of all motivation; 4) its functional relation to both cognition and the drives; and 5) the clinical implications of these concepts. Psychoanalytic theorist Michael Franz Basch called Tomkins the “founder of modern affect theory” (1991, p. 296).

Silvan Solomon Tomkins was born June 4, 1911, in Philadelphia and died June 10, 1991, at the nearby New Jersey shore he loved so deeply. He entered the University of Pennsylvania with the intent to become a playwright, earned an MA in psychology, and left in 1934 with a doctorate in philosophy. The topics of his dissertation – logic and value theory – remained central throughout his career. In 1936 he began postdoctoral study in philosophy at Harvard University, where he became fascinated by the pioneering work on personality emerging from the Harvard Psychological Clinic under the leadership of Henry A. Murray and Robert W. White. In 1947 he began an 18-year tenure in Princeton University’s Department of Psychology, where his interest in the relation between emotion (which he came to call “affect”) and personality formation became the defining theme of his career.

Tomkins’s life work saw print as the four volumes of Affect Imagery Consciousness (1962, 1963, 1991, 1992). Central was the question: How do such varied internal and external stimuli as biological drives, external events, memory, imagination, thinking, words, and other affects, all trigger the relatively small number of discrete responses he defined as the nine innate affects? Collected as his Affect Theory, Tomkins’s answer involves his definition of the affect system as a set of physiological responses to the increase, decrease, or level (quantity) of any stimulus, and it takes into account both the environment (stimuli) and individual variation (temperament).

Most of the basic inborn affects he described were given a range name to indicate the scope of their variations: interest-excitement, enjoyment-joy, surprise-startle, distress-anguish, anger-rage, fear-terror, shame-humiliation, disgust (reaction to noxious tastes) and dissmell (reaction to noxious odors). These affects combine with each other and with any form of experience to become our complex emotional life. His Script Theory organizes a sophisticated understanding of character structure and draws together a wide range of clinical observations and treatment implications.

Tomkins was mentor to and colleague with Virginia Demos, Paul Ekman, Carroll Izard, and Donald Nathanson, among many others. In the latter half of the 20th century this group was instrumental in advancing the understanding of affect by more specifically describing these universal inherited emotional processes and how they develop and function. As nicely described by Ekman (1998), this work provided compelling evidence to help reject the cultural relativism of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson; current scientific data overwhelmingly support the evolutionary and inherited roles of expressions of emotion (Ekman, 1998; Mayr, 2001; Panksepp, 1998).

Tomkins’s theoretical, experimental, and clinical work has been extended by a number of former students, many now working under the banner of The Silvan Tomkins Institute. His ideas have taken root in several fields, and the subject of innate affect now intrigues a new generation of scholars and clinicians. Undoubtedly, time will increasingly enhance our understanding of human feelings and motivation, but perhaps Demos says it best: “Tomkins’ theory represents the state of the art at this time” (1998, p. 102).

(For those interested, the website for the Tomkins Institute is www.tomkins.org. It also contains information about the October 2010 conference.)
References

Basch, M. F. (1976). The concept of affect: A re-examination. Journal of American Psychoanalytic Association, 24, 759-777.

Basch, M. F. (1991). The significance of a theory of affect for psychoanalytic technique. Journal of American Psychoanalytic Association, 39, 291-304.

Demos, E. V. (1998). Differentiating the repetition compulsion from trauma through the lens of Tomkins’ script theory: A response to Russell. In J. G. Teicholz & D. Kriegman (Eds.), Trauma, repetition, and affect regulation: The work of Paul Russell (pp. 67-104). New York: Other Press.

Ekman, P. (Ed.). (1998). The expression of the emotions in man and animals (C. Darwin, 3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1872)

Gedo, J. E. (2005). Psychoanalysis as biological science: A comprehensive theory. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Knapp, P. H. (1987). Some contemporary contributions to the study of emotions. Journal of American Psychoanalytic Association,35, 205-248.

Mayr, E. (2001). What evolution is. New York: Basic Books.

Nathanson, D.L. (1991) Shame and Pride: Affect, sex, and the birth of the self. New York: WW Norton.

Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. New York: Oxford University Press.

Rapaport, D. (1967). On the psychoanalytic theory of affects. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 34, 177-198. In M. M. Gill (Ed.), Collected papers (pp. 476-512). New York: Basic Books. (Original work published 1953)

Tomkins, S. S. (1962). Affect imagery consciousness: Vol. I. The positive affects. New York: Springer.

Tomkins, S. S. (1963). Affect imagery consciousness: Vol. II. The negative affects. New York: Springer.

Tomkins, S. S. (1991). Affect imagery consciousness: Vol. III. The negative affects: Anger and fear. New York: Springer.

Tomkins, S. S. (1992). Affect imagery consciousness: Vol. IV. Cognition: Duplication and transformation of information. New York: Springer.

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Roy R. Grinker, Sr., M.D. (1900 – 1993)

Posted on July 12, 2010 by Paul C. Holinger | | |

Roy R. Grinker, Sr., M.D.  (1900 – 1993)

 Roy Grinker’s life spanned nearly the entire 20^th century, and his influence on the development of psychiatry during that century was profound.  A clinician, teacher, researcher, and administrator, he wrote over 25 books, more than 350 papers, was Chief Editor of the Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry from 1956 – 1976, and founded one of the finest inpatient and outpatient psychiatric facilities in the country. 

Grinker was born in 1900 in Chicago, attended the University of Chicago, Rush Medical School, became a neurologist and then psychiatrist, did post-graduate training in Zurich, London, and Hamburg, and at 27 years old became Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the new University of Chicago Hospital.  He sought further training in the new field of psychoanalysis, going to Vienna in 1933 where he was one of Freud’s last patients.  Returning to Chicago, he built the Institute for Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Research and Training at Michael Reese Hospital (P&PI) which became renowned for psychiatric treatment, training, and research.  He became Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago, University of Illinois, and Northwestern University, was on the faculty of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, and served on several editorial boards.

One of Grinker’s first major publications was his neurology textbook (Grinker’s Neurology) (1).  This was followed by two books based on his work with the military in North Africa and Florida during World War II: War Neuroses in North Africa (2) and Men Under Stress (3).  This research involved war trauma and treatment and remains important today.  Grinker was committed to an integrated biopsychosocial view of understanding human functioning, as reflected in his 1956 book Toward a Unified Theory of Human Behavior (4).  Over the next 35 years, he pioneered work in three major clinical areas: depression, borderline psychopathology and character structure, and schizophrenia.  These studies were published in 1961 (The Phenomena of Depressions) (5), 1968 (The Borderline Syndrome) (6), and 1987 (Clinical Research in Schizophrenia) (7); of all his work, he may be best known for his research on the borderline dilemma.

In the midst of this productive professional life, he also had an active social life.  He married and had two children, a daughter who became a lawyer and a son who became a psychoanalyst.  He enjoyed bridge, gin rummy, golf, and horseshoes.  Unfortunately, later in life he developed herpes zoster and suffered intractable pain until his death at age 93.

Roy Grinker was especially proud of his teaching and training, and many of his students went on to become chairs of departments across the country.  He used to tell his residents who were anxious about graduating and going out into the world: “Well, you can always start the program over!”  During his career, Grinker’s interests ranged over neurology, psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, clinical research, and psychoanalysis.  Ultimately, he was a mentor and role-model for several generations of teachers and leaders in all these various fields.

1. Grinker RR: Grinker’s Neurology.  Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1933.
2. Grinker RR, Spiegel J: War Neuroses in North Africa. New York: Macy Foundation, 1943.
3. Grinker RR, Spiegel J: Men Under Stress.  Philadelphia: Blakiston, 1945.
4. Grinker RR: Toward a Unified Theory of Human Behavior. New York: Basic Books, 1956.
5. Grinker RR et al: The Phenomena of Depressions.  New York: Hoeber, 1961.
6. Grinker RR et al: The Borderline Syndrome.  New York: Basic Books, 1968.
7. Grinker RR, Harrow M: Clinical Research in Schizophrenia.  Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1987.

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