Forms of Relatedness

This chapter seeks to expand upon and elaborate an aspect of theory that bridges object relations and self psychology and that relates to a domain of experience that has been at the heart of a paradigm shift in psychoanalysis. This “domain” cuts across the range of psychological functioning and is relevant to internal structural as well as relational considerations. It is reflected interpersonally in forms of relatedness that are founded on certain fundamental internal conditions (i.e., on the structural qualities of the self) and that vary with these structural qualities. There are three interrelated levels to consider in the context of this domain of experience: (1) forms of interpersonal relatedness and conscious subjectivity, (2) preconscious and unconscious self-experience pertaining to this relatedness, and (3) self-structure (which is a more abstract level of conceptualization, not part of conscious experience per se, but which is inferred from 1 and 2 above). This domain of experience (which I shall shortly describe) is also relevant to developmental “derailments,” to the evolution of character, and to many other conditions that are not most meaningfully viewed as psychopathological. For the purposes of this chapter, I will focus on the dynamics of self-preservation in the context of the analytic process as they pertain to this domain of experience and to a related technical strategy.