ABSTRACT
Subjective experience includes not only experience of external stimuli and inner desires and aims, but also, centrally, interaction with and experience of others. That is, to an important extent, experience is intersubjective experience. What I mean by intersubjective in this chapter is the experience of another as, like oneself, an intentional being with a separate center of existence, desires, and aims. I focus in this chapter on the implications of psychological, psychoanalytic, and philosophical positions on how one understands intersubjective experience. A striking conclusion is that with few exceptions, a common feature of psychoanalytic theories is their instrumentalist view of the other, with little consideration of the other as a separate center of existence relatively independent of one's own needs. I also discuss empirical research relevant to intersubjectivity, including the mirror neuron system, theory of mind (ToM), and neural synchrony.
