The Intersubjective Perspective

Edited by Robert D. Stolorow, George E. Atwood

Not available to order

Publication date:

01 January 1994

Length of book:

232 pages

Publisher

Jason Aronson, Inc.

ISBN-13: 9781461631422

This remarkable book is required reading for all mental professionals because it is the most comprehensive and articulate presentation about the recent changes in psychoanalytic theory concerning the inclusion of relational and interactional concepts. The authors' conception of a system of differently organized intersecting subjective worlds illuminates both the process of psychoanalytic therapy and the stages of psychic development. One of the central tenets of this innovative perspective is that clinical phenomena including all forms of psychopathology cannot be understood apart from the intersubjective contexts in which they take form. The intersubjective perspective provides a new methodological and epistemological stance that both calls for a radical modification of psychoanalytic theory and greatly enhances the effectiveness of psychoanalytic treatment.
A Jason Aronson Book

Part 1 I. Intersubjectivity
Chapter 2 The Intersubjective Context of Intrapsychic Experience
Chapter 3 Toward a Science of Human Experience
Chapter 4 Subjectivity and Self Psychology
Part 5 II Intersubjectivity and the Therapeutic Process
Chapter 6 The Nature and Therapeutic Action of Psychoanalytic Interpretation
Chapter 7 To Free the Spirit from Its Cell
Chapter 8 Self Psychology and Intersubjectivity Theory
Chapter 9 The Difficult Patient
Chapter 10 Aggression in the Psychoanalytic Situation
Chapter 11 Masochism and Its Treatment
Chapter 12 Countertransference
Chapter 13 Converting Psychotherapy to Psychoanalysis
Part 14 III Broader Implications of Intersubjectivity
Chapter 15 The Pursuit of Being in the Life and Thought of Jean-Paul Sartre
Chapter 16 Countertransference, Empathy, and the Hermeneutical Circle
Chapter 17 Psychoanalysis, Self Psychology and Intersubjectivity

The Intersubjective Perspective, by drawing together selected papers on intersubjectivity, reveals the impact this major paradigm is having on psychotherapy theory. In their brilliant, creative work, Robert Stolorow and colleagues concisely elucidate theory developed earlier, and include several valuable cases. They freshly address persistent issues such as interpretation and aggression, and answer major criticisms. Trop's new chapter, in support of Stolorow's personal odyssey paper, critiques Kohut's (unfinished) self psychology and makes clear that intersubjectivity is more inclusive than his ideas. Another important chapter by Sucharow casts self psychology and intersubjectivity in the quantum revolution. This is 'cutting edge' material and 'must' reading for clinicians and students invested in psychotherapy aimed at character change.