Recent Psychoanalytic Thought: The Contemporary Americans (Session III)

Key Figures: Harry Stack Sullivan, Edgar Levenson, Emmanuel Ghent, Stephen Mitchell, Jay Greenberg, Philip Bromberg, Jessica Benjamin, Adrienne Harris

Key Concepts: Selective Inattention / Red Thread of Anxiety / Self and Other in Relation / Enactment, Subjectivity, Inter-subjectivity, and Self-Disclosure of the Analyst / Multiple Self-States

Instructors: Bev Osband, Ph.D. & Kathy Weissbourd, Ph.D.

In the 1980s, Stephen Mitchell and others began to formulate a new approach to psychoanalysis crafted from the contributions of interpersonal psychoanalysis (H S Sullivan) and object relations theory. Unlike earlier challengers to traditional American psychoanalytic models, they directly addressed aspects of Freudian and Kleinian theory that had dominated psychoanalytic practice, particularly instinct theory and the belief that the unconscious is largely an individual struggle with desire and compliance. Drawing from attachment theory, they focused on the foundational belief that all development is essentially relational. In treatment they highlight the present interaction between analyst and patient, co-construction of the therapeutic alliance, negotiation of conflict, and authenticity in the therapeutic exchange. This class will trace the foundation of the relational model in American pragmatism, through the influence of Sullivan and his followers, to the contemporary challenges it presents to psychoanalytic theories of ego psychology and object relations.

In the four hours together we will briefly look at the early history of psychoanalysis in the United States, touching on some of the key concepts of Harry Stack Sullivan’s interpersonal theory before moving on to look at the seminal work of Emmanuel Ghent and Stephen Mitchell in generating the shift towards a relational psychoanalysis, closing our survey with a look at Philip Bromberg whose work has evolved from its roots in Sullivan’s interpersonal psychoanalysis to his current pioneering role in the treatment of trauma and the body.

Registration

Visit the Psychoanalytic Perspectives page to register for this event.