ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book makes explicit and emphasizes what is implicit in the contributions of Arlow and Brenner: unconscious conflict is ubiquitous and interminable, all perceptions and thoughts are subjective, and all experiences in relationships are intersubjective. The emphasis on the ubiquity and interminability of conflict stresses that there are no purely rational, mature, integrated thoughts or perceptions. All thoughts and perceptions are subjective. To the degree that the concept of neutrality implies the objectivity of the analyst, it is mythic. The concept of intersubjectivity stresses the interminability of the influence of unconscious fantasy and conflict. It helps the analyst resist the seductive idea that he or she can objectively understand an experience. Compromise formation theory, with its emphasis on the interminability of conflict, has always stressed the subjectivity of thought and perception in general, and of transference and countertransference.
