A Contemporary Integration of Modern and Postmodern Trends in Psychoanalysis

Abstract

Postmodernism has appeared on the psychoanalytic horizon and with it brought change and some confusion. Although many link or even conflate it with relational and intersubjectivity theory, those views are as subject to a postmodernist critique as other analytic orientations. Postmodernism can also be seen as usefully informing the concepts of psychoanalytic narrative and psychoanalytic space. It should not be viewed as an organized theory or movement that would entirely replace modernist ideas in psychoanalysis. Indeed, valid critiques of both modern and postmodern psychoanalytic positions have been advanced. In this climate the need for a viable integration remains urgent. Bruno Latour's development of the concept of hybrid structure as a way of dealing with the same kind of impasse in the field of science studies is presented, along with its applicability to the dilemma faced by psychoanalysis.

Mark Leffert: The Therapeutic Situation in the 21st Century

“…Two points seem worthy of mention preliminarily: Leffert (2007) takes pains in this work and elsewhere to sharply differentiate his postmodern stance from an interpersonal/relational perspective; and, unlike Leffert who was largely educated as Freudian (p. 247,f. He aims to offer "… a rudimentary textbook of clinical psychoanalysis in a different language" (p. xi), one that is cleansed of metapsychology.…”

The Psychoanalysis and Death of George Gershwin: An American Tragedy

“…From a distance of over 70 years, we are dealing with an interwoven skein of at times conflicting narratives similar to what we would encounter in the writing of any history. I have written elsewhere (Leffert, 2007a(Leffert, , 2007b(Leffert, , 2010 on the subjects of history, narrative, and knowability.…”

Complexity and Postmodernism in Contemporary Theory of Psychoanalytic Change

“…Rather, it is that the authors raise fundamental issues concerning the complexity and knowability of change and, in the process, face significant problems to which unrecognized and undiscussed aspects of complexity theory, coupled with noncritical postmodern theory (Leffert, 2007a) can offer solutions.…”

“…Clinical work with narratives has been described elsewhere in depth (Leffert, 2007a). This work involves deconstructing them as they come up in the usual course of the analytic process.…”