ABSTRACT
The introduction of the idea of intersubjectivity into psychoanalysis has many important consequences and has been understood in a variety of ways. Initially, the idea of the third passed into psychoanalysis through Lacan, whose view of intersubjectivity derived from Hegel's theory of recognition and its popularization by the French Hegelian writer Kojeve. Lacan thought that the intersubjective third was constituted by recognition through speech, which allows a difference of viewpoints and of interests, saving from the kill-or-be-killed power struggle in which there is only one right way. Unfortunately, Lacan's oedipal view equated the third with the father, contending that the father's 'no', his prohibition or 'castration', constitutes the symbolic third. In orienting to the moral third of responsibility, the analyst is also demonstrating the route out of helplessness. In calling this the moral third, the clinical practice may ultimately be founded in certain values, such as the acceptance of uncertainty, humility, and compassion.
