Understanding Intersubjectivity

“We Don't Get Fooled Again”…Or Do We? One Social Worker's Artistic Perspective on Supervisee Resistance and the Process of Meaning Making in Contemporary Psychodynamic Clinical Supervision

“…The idea that the psyche exists as an amalgam of multiple self states is germane to the discussion of resistance in this article to the extent that a supervisee's apparent diminished capacity to function in clinical and supervisory situations may be understood in terms of shifts in his or her self state rather than in terms of a resistant singular self. 1 þ 1 ¼ 3 Intersubjective theorists (Benjamin, 2004;Bram & Gabbard, 2001;Frie & Reis, 2001;Gerson, 2004;Ogden, 1985Ogden, , 1994 extended and refined the idea of subjective mutual appreciation and, in effect (whether deliberate or not), appeared to explain what constituted relational theory's mechanism of action: that is, the mechanics of subjective mutual appreciation. Central to intersubjective theory (Benjamin, 2004;Frie & Reis, 2001;Ogden, 1985Ogden, , 1994 was the idea that the interaction of two subjectivities created a third shared composite subjectivity.…”

“…1 þ 1 ¼ 3 Intersubjective theorists (Benjamin, 2004;Bram & Gabbard, 2001;Frie & Reis, 2001;Gerson, 2004;Ogden, 1985Ogden, , 1994 extended and refined the idea of subjective mutual appreciation and, in effect (whether deliberate or not), appeared to explain what constituted relational theory's mechanism of action: that is, the mechanics of subjective mutual appreciation. Central to intersubjective theory (Benjamin, 2004;Frie & Reis, 2001;Ogden, 1985Ogden, , 1994 was the idea that the interaction of two subjectivities created a third shared composite subjectivity. It was within this shared third (Benjamin, 2004;Ogden, 1994) that the mutual subjects understood and created one another.…”

Frankenstein, Spellbound, and World War Z: Evolving concepts of the unconscious.

“…Lacan (1977), although not a member of the Frankfurt School, presented similar views of the individual as subjected to the forces of history and culture, the symbolic order, largely through the lens of language. Lacan, like Fromm and other critical theorists, was strongly influenced by Hegel, his intersubjective concept of consciousness, the importance of recognition, and the complexities of power described through the metaphor of the “master–slave dialectic.” Lacan, like other theorists influenced by Hegel and critical theory, viewed culture (“O”) as a dynamic force that shapes our conscious and unconscious experience through language, economics, history and changing definitions of gender, individuality, and attachment (Frie & Reis, 2001). This perspective viewing culture as an unconscious force seems to have been largely marginalized in traditional psychoanalytic theories.…”

A Multi‐layered Approach to Patient Agency: Applying the Listening Guide to a Patient's Narratives

“…Agency is oftentimes interpreted as belonging to a self-conscious agent, a unitary 'I'; an interpretation that runs counter to the core assumption of psychoanalysis which considers humans as thwarted by their unconscious (i.e., 'the ego is not master in his own house'; Freud, 1955Freud, [1917). Therefore, the idea of agency as belonging to a unitary 'I' is regarded illusionary in nature (Frie & Reis, 2005) not only by psychoanalytic thought, but also by the postmodern approach of a person as a multiplicity of 'selves'.…”