Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book develops the basic ideas of an intersubjective psychoanalysis organized around the idea of recognition. It proposes a theoretical framework that illuminates those consequences, those that have emerged from the study of early development as well as relational practice. The book shows how clinical psychoanalysis has given a unique perspective on relational repair and traces the vicissitudes of intersubjective breakdowns and healing through acknowledgment. It discusses the analytic process of repairing the Third, which works both by restoring rhythmicity or recognition as well as by working with the collisions that result from the complementary impasses of doer and done to. The book also attempts to elaborate the Third as a position that itself develops, from the very basic interactive patterns—rhythmicity—into more complex, symbolically mediated forms of shared reflection, dialogue and negotiation of difference.