ABSTRACT
Psychoanalysis now recognizes that the human sense of self is a very complex, conflicting, and ever-changing process—not a fixed structure inside of us. Modern psychoanalysis uses the term “self” as an emergent property, as a process happening in the space between two subjects.
Classic psychoanalysis was “one-person,” a doctor listening to a patient. Modern psychoanalysis involves two subjectivities, each contributing to the work and each affected by the other.
While the prime modern focus is on the affect, we continue to need a narrative. Allan Schore and Daniel Siegel both teach that right-brain unknown and unexpressed feelings must be translated into words via the left brain.
Our first theory was conflict theory: Our psyche is at odds with itself. Within that narrative, we work with drives, conflicts, and guilt. The current theory, held by the self psychology lineage and those involved in the attachment lineage, is that of arrested development. In the developmental arrest model, we work with affects, desires, and shame. A third useful theory is the emerging research on affect regulation, much favored by the attachment and neuroscience schools.
Modern neuroscience is contributing to psychotherapies of all persuasions as it discovers the underlying mechanisms of our nervous systems and our attachment systems.
