ABSTRACT
This chapter is dedicated to Andrew Samuels on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. Among the many gifts that Andrew has bestowed on the field of analysis, I would like to acknowledge one contribution in particular that is widely made use of, yet, to my knowledge, has not been sufficiently recognised by the very field it enriches. I have in mind Andrew’s unique contribution to the field of clinical discourse. In reflecting on the history of clinical paradigm in the past twenty years, one shift stands out: the axiomatic inclusion of the socio-political dimension in the clinical hour. Due to Andrew’s contribution, the very view of reality assumed by clinical discourse has changed to embrace the relevance of human socio-political experience. In my view, the importance of this particular shift will continue to stand out as time passes and will be seen to enable and foster a further shift in the concept of reality underlying clinical paradigm which is currently emerging: the spiritual dimension of the socio-political human being that Andrew Samuels put on the map of clinical discourse in the twentieth century.
