ABSTRACT
We are in the midst of a revolution in perspective that is transforming psychoanalytic conceptions of development, pathogenesis, and the therapeutic context. This revolution includes self psychology (Kohut, 1959, 1971, 1977), intersubjectivity theory (Atwood and Stolorow, 1984, 1993; Stolorow, Brandchaft, and Atwood, 1987; Stolorow and Atwood, 1992; Orange, Atwood, and Stolorow, 1997), and a variety of modern relational approaches (e.g., Mitchell, 1988, 1993; Bacal and Newman, 1990; Aron, 1996). From this perspective, dynamic processes, symptoms, and defenses, formerly viewed as products of an isolated mind (Stolorow and Atwood, 1992), are understood as inextricably interwoven with ties of human relatedness to vitally needed others. The development of self-experience in childhood is seen in the context of the responsiveness of caregivers. Similarly, a contextual view of the therapeutic process reveals that progressive and regressive movement in the consolidation of authentic self-experience is exquisitely sensitive to and vulnerable to the analytic relationship. Oscillations in the sense of self, including the sense of agency, self-cohesion, self-continuity, and self-esteem, can be understood as organized and regulated within a system of mutual influence, both in early development and in therapy.
