ABSTRACT
I first introduce my vision of contemporary relational theory, which encompasses relational and interpersonal theories, Stolorow and collaborators’ intersubjective systems theory, Coburn’s complexity theory, and Beebe and Lachmann’s dyadic systems theory. Then I describe the expansiveness of relational self-psychology itself, beginning with the alterations I’ve made in Kohut’s self-psychology, along with revisions I’ve made in Kohut’s formulations based on contemporary understanding. Next, concepts from relational and interpersonal theories are introduced, and finally, relational self-psychology’s capacity to encompass ideas drawn from other related disciplines is described, including attachment theory, infant research, existential epistemological philosophy, systems theory, evolutionary biology, and neurobiological studies, such a Allan Shore’s, and, most particularly, Gerald Edelman’s global brain theory of consciousness. I believe it is this very integration of theories around contemporary thought that allows for and constitutes the most important developments in psychoanalysis today; further, I believe that the introduction of brain-based psychoanalysis, with the contributions that such non-linear, process thinking affords, offers the promise of a new, stronger, more individualized psychoanalytic treatment.
