Introduction

During the past three decades or so, psychoanalysis has been teeming with new and often competing theories—both those dealing with clinical realities and with metapsychological reflection on the workings of the mind. In this respect, the period has differed from the previous one—roughly lasting from the time of Freud’s death through the sixties—when a great part of the theoretical work that was carried out dealt with the clarification, elucidation, and systematization of established Freudian and post-Freudian theoretical positions. Of all the new directions of the last 30 years, I wish to mention two: hermeneutics and intersubjectivity.