Reparation Terminable and Interminable

Abstract

Reparation, in psychoanalytic and particularly Kleinian thinking, is often seen as central to the establishment of a creative capacity for love and concern. But apparent reparative urges may have obsessional and narcissistic aspects which militate against the capacity to use an object and thus against the emergence of genitality and true creativity. In particular, ‘reparative’ strivings may be a defence against feared parental envy and against the agonies and anxieties inherent in the act of asserting a separated self. The obsessional need to repair is considered in developmental and clinical terms and in relation to the practice and culture of psychoanalysis.

Alexander Chaffers and the Genesis of the Vexatious Actions Act 1896

“…117 Georgina Weldon was only the most famous of the increasing number of litigants in person appearing in the superior courts in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 118 Women litigants in person seemed particularly feared. 119 Writing in 1911, an experienced barrister described litigants in person as ''the terror of the Bar, and (with some fortunate exceptions) the aversion of the Bench'', and noted that ''at one time amateur litigation of this class seemed to have become epidemic''.…”