ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to bring together the two streams of thinking, psychoanalysis and relational analysis, by tracing the history of the author's own influences and professional development over the past 40 years. It demonstrates by example that a relational/intersubjective approach is as firmly rooted in the British object relations and Jungian traditions as Blonde on Blonde was rooted in the American tradition of country music and the blues. For relational analysts, the social aspect of our being is fundamental to psychological life – it is not an "add on" or a separate domain of our existence. The emphasis on relationship rather than interpretation as the key to therapeutic change is a defining element of the relational approach. One of the great benefits of the relational perspective is that it offers a bridge that brings together differing orientations within the Jungian world.
