ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a brief history of 20th-century Psychoanalysis and its embeddedness in Phenomenology, Existentialism, and Postmodernism. It shifts the discussion from the individual (Classical Psychoanalysis), to the therapeutic couple (Relational and Intersubjective Psychotherapy), to the whole of relationships and the sociocultural world that we inhabit and, in turn, impinges upon us. These schools of contemporary philosophy expand the range of ontology, the study of Being, available to the practicing Psychotherapist or Psychoanalyst rather than constrain it, which is the price one pays for Metapsychology. In this chapter, I treat Postmodernism as a supplement to rather than a replacement of Phenomenology and Existentialism. The latter in particular involves the study of Meaning and Absurdity. Clinical illustrations are provided to demonstrate the usefulness of these ideas as they relate to Therapeutic Action.
