ABSTRACT
Frankel suggests that the Interpersonal approach is not a developmental one and contrasts it with a more Winnicottian, Object Relational influenced Relational perspective. Interpersonal psychoanalysis is developmental by definition, but investigators from this perspective traditionally have not examined the fine and molecular points, the moment-to-moment details of child development, as have Classical, Kleinian, and middle school Object Relational analysts. Frankel characterizes the Interpersonal approach as oppositional toward patients and toward the psychoanalytic community as well. Analysts of the Interpersonal tradition are portrayed as overly active, intrusive, challenging, confrontative, and tending toward insensitivity to patient's vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and infantile qualities. The developmental-arrest model is captured in the theorizing of Balint and Winnicott and some who have followed them among the British middle school or British independents. Complementary countertransference refers to analysts identifying with the significant others in patient's lives or life histories. Interpersonal psychoanalysts have much to learn from Object Relations analysts and from self psychologists.
