Contexts of Being: The Intersubjective Foundations of Psychological Life

by Robert D. Stolorow, George E. Atwood

In this volume, the authors complete the circle begun with Faces in a Cloud (1979) and continued with Structures of Subjectivity (1984) and Psychoanalytic An Intersubjective Approach (1987- with Brandchaft). They now extend intersubjectivity theory to a rethinking of the foundational pillars of psychoanalytic theory since they have already demonstrated the degree to which psychological theory is influenced by the subjective world of the psychological theorist, explored the various "structures of subjectivity" that organize the subjective world, and applied the intersubjective perspective to a broad array of clinical issues.

Beginning with an in-depth critique of the concept of the isolated individual mind, Stolorow and Atwood argue that this myth has long obstructed recognition of the intersubjective foundations of psychological life. The authors then proceed to a series of chapters that reframe, from the standpoint of intersubjectivity theory, basic assumptions of the psychoanalytic theory of mental life. Concluding chapters on "varieties of therapeutic alliance" and "varieties of therapeutic impasse" further exemplify the ability of intersubjectivity theory to reorient the psychoanalytic therapist, thus providing fresh strategies for understanding and addressing the most challenging clinical contingencies.

Contexts of Being is the conceptual culmination of Stolorow and Atwood's earlier studies, giving them a forum to explain why the perspective of intersubjectivity cannot be reduced to a clinical sensibility that can be grafted onto existing psychoanalytic theory. Rather, the authors argue, the intersubjective perspective has methodological and epistemological implications that mandate a radical revision of all aspects of psychoanalytic thought. Not only a cogent elaboration of these implications, the volume is also an important first step in effecting the sweeping revision that follows from them.

Genres: Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Nonfiction

158 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1992

Reviews

[A Low Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world we live in and the relationships that surround us shape us. Our selves do not arise in self-referential isolation. There is no objective truth between two people, even when one is in the role of the therapist, and the therapist’s own life and views matter, and can help or hinder the client in their healing and understanding of themselves. Trying to understand the patient’s reality within its own organizing principles and without judging it as innately pathological is critical for the attunement and understanding of the therapist. Countertransference is every bit as important as transference and the therapist needs to maintain an internal dialogue of self-inquiry into their reactions and responses to their patients. Male therapists, watch yourself when working with women who have sexual trauma because you can either help or make things worse. (Wish they’d included an example of this last one with the genders flipped.)

Truth. Said fancy from an era where “Oriental” was still considered acceptable and the default pronoun to write with for the therapist’s voice is “he/him”. But not bad for a white male psychoanalyst in 1992 in a field where some people still use Freudian theory as a primary reference point. Not bad at all. Didn’t much care for the extended case study of Jessica, but I’m not a psychoanalyst who sees people 5 times a week.

You know what? This feels almost like a psychoanalyst making a case for person centered therapy in a psychoanalytic context. 🧐

[xenia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a year back and it's fallen into the memory hole. All I have left are these weyward notes:

from self to system
from drive to affect
from the reality principle (opposite of psychosis) to a sense is realness (opposite of dissociation)

prereflective unconscious: organising principles that unconsciously shape experience
dynamic unconscious: experiences denied articulation because they threatened a tie (threatening response - anxiety)
unvalidated unconscious: experiences not articulated because they were never validated by an other (no response - avoidance)

embodiment: achieved though touch (holding) then vision (mirroring) then symbols (language)
caregiver's affect attunement = validating responsiveness

studies on hysteria: psychic trauma is caused by 1) an unbearable overwhelming affect state, 2) an unacceptable idea such as a fantasy

ego psychoanalysis + object-relations psychoanalysis: both concretise the analyst's subjective experience as objective reality
distortion is viewed as in the patient's mind, blinding clinicians to their own influence
psychological cure becomes synonymous with compliance, deviance is labelled as resistance

freud wanted to separate fantasy from reality, but he failed to understand that fantasies are concretisations of reality—that something can be both a fantasy and point to a traumatic event, as a dream condenses and displaces a referent

stolorow and the atwood argue that the only thing that matters in therapy is subjective reality, but one consisting of the analyst's, the patient's, and the third that emerges between the two

[2024 me] basically, existential psychotherapy, filtered through the relational ontology of attachment theory, with a sprinkling of pierre janet

[Dav Sánchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

De los mejores libros de psicoterapia, en particular por su aproximación a la mirada relacional, que he leído hasta el momento ♥️