Edna O'Shaughnessy

In a series of influential papers, O'Shaughnessy developed the concept of the defensive organization, a rigid patterns of defences and object relations that prevents progress from being made.

O'Shaughnessy explored the role of projections in the psychotic, noting how they can be "loaded with enormous hostility; they are weapons - boomerangs which destroy the foundations for intuitive knowledge of the self and object".

[3] In the tradition of W. R. Bion, she emphasized the importance of thinking in forming object relations, noting how failure to integrate observation and experience (due to fear of loss of omnipotence) can prevent the formation of, and working through of the Oedipal triangle.

The essay claimed that O'Shaughnessy's adherence to Kleinian theory prevented her from fully understanding him or making 'common-sense' observations during their work together.

He explained that O'Shaughnessy's published papers based on the analysis of 'Leon', such as 'The Imaginary Oedipus Complex' (1989), do not accord with his memories of the treatment, and raised concerns about their positive reception amongst psychoanalysts.