Complexity and Postmodernism in Contemporary Theory of Psychoanalytic Change

Abstract

The contemporary literature on change in psychoanalysis has struggled to integrate recent developments in theory. Reasons for its limitations are discussed. The present article brings to bear relevant concepts drawn from postmodernism and complexity theory on ideas about how change occurs in psychoanalysis. In elaborating these two skeins, it looks critically at some recent attempts to incorporate them and considers their relationship to each other. A general description of complexity theory is offered because it has not yet been well documented in the analytic literature. Postmodern theory is talked about in relation to change; it has been discussed more generally in the author's earlier work. Ways in which postmodernism and complexity theory can inform psychoanalysis but also constrain some of its assumptions are explored. The nature and occurrence of qualitative events of psychoanalytic change are described. Four kinds of such events are described and illustrated with clinical vignettes. Analytic change viewed from a macro rather than a micro level is also discussed.

On Emergence: A Neo-Psychoanalytic Essay on Change and Science

“…Leffert (2008) has usefully addressed the problem of novelty with an emphasis on complexity theory and postmodernism, both of which are subsumed within the evolutionary concept of emergence. The Boston Change Process Study Group (2005) focuses on change, and their work fits well into the emergent model presented here.…”

Merging and Emerging: A Nonlinear Portrait of Intersubjectivity During Psychotherapy

“…As the methods, research, and paradigm of nonlinear dynamics slowly infuse through the social sciences, a rich body of theoretical and clinical literature accumulates within psychoanalysis (Coburn, 2000(Coburn, , 2002(Coburn, , 2007Galatzer-Levy, 1995, 2004in press;Goldstein, 1997;Harris, 2005Harris, , 2009Leffert, 2008;Levin, 2006;Levinson, 1994;Marks-Tarlow, 2008b;Moran, 1991;Palumbo, 1999Palumbo, , 2007Piers, 2000;Piers, Muller, & Brent, 2007;Pincus, Freeman, & Modell, 2007;Pizer, 1998;Priel & Schreiber, 1994;Procci, 2002;Rubenfeld, 2001;Seligman, 2005;Spruiell, 1993;Stolorow, 1997;Taerk, 2002;Thelen, 2005;Tyson, 2005). Nonlinear science provides a flexible description of how psychotherapy operates on multiple levelsranging from the time scale of milliseconds where subcortical, autonomic processes contribute to conscious "moments of meeting" plus their cascading effects over longer time scales.…”

Finding Your Way Through Chaos, Fractals, and Other Exotic Mathematical Objects: a Guide for the Perplexed

“…The applications of these new ideas to psychoanalysis, including gender (Harris 2005), analytic process (Palumbo 1999;Coburn 2002;Galatzer-Levy in press;Levinson 1994;Lyons-Ruth 1999;Stern et al 1998;Pincus, Freeman, and Modell 2007;Procci 2002;Stolorow 1997;Taerk 2002), child analysis (Tyson 2005), development (Galatzer-Levy 2004;Hershberg 2006), mind-brain theory (Davis 2002;Freeman 2007: Levin 2003, therapeutic impasse (Harris 2009); postmodern theory (Leffert 2008), metaphor (Antal 2008;Stein 1999), relational psychology (Seligman 2002), group therapy (Pincus and Guastello 2005;Rubenfeld 2001), character (Piers 2000), psychoanalytic education (Levin 2006), transference (Pincus, Freeman, and Modell 2007), and other psychoanalytic issues have led some of us (Coburn 2000(Coburn , 2007Moran 1991;Palumbo 2007;Priel and Schreiber 1994;Galatzer-Levy 1995;Seligman 2005;Spruiell 1993) to claim that a whole new paradigm for thinking about psychoanalysis is emerging.…”