The Intersubjective Perspective

The reader of The Intersubjective Perspective will gain a profound appreciation of the interplay, in therapy, between the therapist's and the patient's psychological worlds. He or she will also acquire an enhanced awareness of the richness and creativity of intersubjective theory. (Joseph Weiss, M.D., San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute)

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. (Ronald R. Lee, Ph.D., Illinois School of Professional Psychology)

With this new volume, these author-editors bring their intersubjective theory to a new level of clinical understanding and applicability. What makes this collection especially valuable is that it addresses the needs of the most sophisticated adherents to this psychoanalytic approach, providing as it does an integrative summation and response to critics at the same time that it affords an entree into intersubjectivity for those in the field less familiar and committed to this innovative perspective. To stay current with the fast pace of psychoanalytic progress, this book must be read. (Estelle Shane, Ph.D. and Morton Shane, M.D., Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis)

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. (T. L. Dorpat, M.D.)

Robert D. Stolorow, Ph.D., is a faculty member and training and supervising analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles; a core faculty member at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York City; and clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine. George E. Atwood, Ph.D., is a core faculty member at the institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York City, and professor of psychology at Rutgers University. Bernard Brandchaft, M.D., is a faculty member and training and supervising analyst at the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Institute and at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles; a core faculty member at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York City; and assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine.