Chapter 8- Intersubjectivity- Textbook Of Psychoanalysis Flashcards
How is an inter subjective approach to psychoanalysis different from traditional approaches to psychoanalysis?
In traditional psychoanalysis, the subject object relationship between analyst and patient is one where the analyst and patient serve as subjects in their own state while the other is the object. Traditionally, the analyst as object of the subject patient, helps the patient understand their mind through psychoanalytic interpretation. However, in an inter subjective approach, both the analyst and patient work together through their subjectivity to arrive at an understanding of the patient’s mind.
What are the core neurological structures that create the experience of intersubjectivity and how do they work?
Mirror neurons allow an individual to experience and potentially replicate what another is feeling and experiencing. These neurons are the way in which our psychic life can experience something other than what it beholds itself
From birth, what are the innate processes guiding an infant towards?
Social reciprocity
How does stolorow describe consciousness and the self?
Stolorow believed consciousness is a result of minds in interaction and the result of that consciousness, which is based off many interactions, are what formulate an individuals understanding of self.
What is the pre reflective self?
The affective self, prior to any reflective capabilities. They are the feelings that one has, which help them come to an understanding of themselves, without any capacity for reflection of because they occur so early in life.
What is the medium for understanding the intersubjectivity of one’s own mind?
It is the articulation between both client and analyst, which moves the spectrum from intrapsychic to inter subjective, thus allowing both participants to come to understand the patient’s unconscious.
How would one describe therapeutic progress and what would the process look like?
Therapaeutic process consisted of the patient and analyst both co creating a narrative together regarding the story of that person’s life. The process is akin to someone bring a manuscript to an editor and both working together to refine the story by asking questions, developing considerations and working together through that repetitive process.
Ferenczi was the first analyst to take intersubjectivity seriously. What did he argue in its regards?
Ferenczi argued that the initial inter subjective experiences occur for the infant in the presence of parents and caretakers, and it is those figures who rob the ego of its self reflective capacity. The result of this is a limited decision making ability because the ego is split off from one individual and thought to exist in the authoritative other, which makes one subjectively reliant on others for guidance.
What did Ferenczi emphasize when it came to intersubjectivity and what would be the outcomes of that?
Ferenczi emphasized that affective states can be created by one person in another, especially when referring to the analytic context. He believed these affective states would emerge according to the unconscious safe or unsafe contexts produced by an individual/analyst, which is where symptoms would emerge from.
Henry Sullivan was also a forerunner in promoting intersubjectivity as a critical phenomenon. What did he describe regarding intersubjectivity?
Sullivan mentioned that implicit or explicit information about a person can only be understood through communication with another person. The information one can acquire about another can only be learned through the extent to which one person can communicate to another.
What was Ronald Fairbarn’s stance on intersubjectivity and how did he apply his understanding of it?
Fairbarn believed that early subjective experiences were the basis for adult intrapsychic phantasies. He referred to Freud’s work on sexuality as being a source of anxiety, however he described that in infancy if an infant shows excitement and is met with anxiety by the mother, then the infant will associate the 2 together. If excitement is met with excitement, then this period of heightened arousal has a positive association to it.
What were the implications of Fairbarn’s understandings of intersubjectivity regarding excitement?
Fairbarn believed that if an infant’s excitement is met with rejection, the infant will then enter into a depressive state, as this is the only means to retain the vital connection for life with the mother. This depressive state originates in a state of anger, which he believes to be the basis for anxiety, depression and distress. As the child gives up their anger state (in order to retain ties with mom), the result is THAT THEY LOSE A PART OF THEIR EMOTIONAL SELF
After learning about Fairbarn’s understanding of the origin of anger, how do you understand your reactions to Bismah’s rejection and your anger that ensues?
Feeling rejected by Bismah must parallel the experiences of rejection with my mom, which were a result of her anxiety about my excitement. This is why I’m so reserved on getting excited, and so angry when I am rejected. This anger that I have when I feel rejected needs to be reclaimed back for myself and put into an understandable context in order for me to reintegrate with my affective self.
At it’s core, what is depression?
The feeling of ultimate loss when it comes to relating to a mother/primary caretaker
What are of interest did Donald Winnicott explore and how did he put that into the context of the psychoanalytic setting?
Winnicott was interested in how well the mother attended to what the infant was showing interest in, and how much she facilitated the infants exploration in that arena (curiosity). He felt that in the psychoanalytic arena, the analyst should allow the patient to use the therapist in the way they’d like. This allows opportunities for the patient’s true self to come out.
