Face to Face

Suchet, Melanie

doi:10.1080/10481881003716248

Cited by 9 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 20 publications

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“…The debate has developed into substantial bodies of theory-those on mutual influence, intersubjectivity, the tension between empathy and the recognition of difference, and the expanding definition of co-created conscious and unconscious states, to name a few of the developments enriching current psychoanalytic thinking (Orange, Atwood, & Stolorow, 1997;Buirski and Haglund, 2001;Beebe, Jaffe, and Lachmann, 2002;Orange, 2002). There have also been a number of important, recent engagements with the political edges of intersubjectivity in therapies involving therapist-patient dyads drawn from opposing sides of national, religious, or ideological conflicts (Rozmarin, 2007;Suchet, 2007Suchet, , 2010Shoshani, Shoshani, and Shinar, 2010). These have offered illuminating descriptions of the challenges of confronting identity difference in psychoanalytic work, and simultaneously raise questions that need theoretical scaffolding and integration into our understandings of both subjectivity and technique.…”

Section: Subjectivity and Empathymentioning

confidence: 95%

The Broken Mirror: Difference and Shame in South African Psychotherapy

Swartz

2012

International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology

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This article offers an outline of the challenges particular to intersubjective approaches to psychoanalytic psychotherapy in South Africa. It focuses on the possibility (and impossibility) of empathic inquiry and the dynamics of shame when racial difference, and all its associated baggage, dominatesfor a moment or for months-the interaction of the therapy dyad. It focuses on the limits of empathic immersion when difference confers a fluid, shifting, but ever-present otherness on every encounter. It draws on the work of Allan Schore in relation to affect regulation and self-development, of Philip Bromberg on dissociation, and of Andy Morrison and Melvin Lansky on shame. The article suggests that struggles with empathic attunement in racialized contexts are often deeply affected by shame. This is associated with visceral experience of the social body, positioned by race and gender. Understanding the roots of shame experienced in therapies across racial and cultural divides marks the beginning of shared subjectivity and mutual regulation.

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