ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the emergent paradigm of “relational” thinking as it occurs within psychoanalysis and group analysis. It utilizes ideas from Robert Stolorow’s intersubjectivity theory and group analysis to convey an impression of what it might mean to move decisively away from the “myth of the isolated mind” and “one-body” psychology. Intersubjectivity theory can illuminate group as well as individual processes, whether those of historical groups, such as Freud’s circle or the International Psychoanalytic Association, or of groups of individuals who come together with the aim of seeking therapy and personal change. The history of the psychoanalytic movement is of considerable interest to the student of intersubjectivity and group analysis. An archaeological metaphor is used frequently by Freud to describe mental life—a psychology of “depth”, whereby later stages of development are overlain on earlier ones, just as the archaeologist unearths traces of earlier civilisations.
