A Meeting of Minds Mutuality in Psychoanalysis [Hardcover]

In this richly nuanced assessment of the various dimensions of mutuality in psychoanalysis, Aron shows that the relational approach to psychoanalysis is a powerful guide to issues of technique and therapeutic strategy. From his reappraisal of the concepts of interaction and enactment, to his examination of the issue of analyst self-disclosure, to his concluding remarks on the relational import of the analyst's ethics and values, Aron squarely accepts the clinical responsibilities attendant to a postmodern critique of psychoanalytic foundations.

The Relational Orientation: An Introduction. Relational Theory and Its Boundaries: One- and Two-Person Psychologies. The Patient's Experience of the Analyst's Subjectivity. Interpretation as Expression of the Analyst's Subjectivity. Aspects of Mutuality in Clinical Psychoanalysis. The Dialectics of Mutuality and Autonomy: The Origins of Relational Theory in the Contributions of Sandor Ferenczi and Otto Rank. Enactment, Interaction, and Projective Identification: The Interpersonalization of Psychoanalysis. On Knowing and Being Known: Theoretical and Technical Considerations Regarding Self-Disclosure.

In this scholary and clearly written volume, Aron takes the reader on a guided tour of relational psychoanalysis and provides a thoughtful perspective on contemporary psychoanalytic thinking.  I find his book to be a cutting-edge contribution to contemporar psychoanalytic discourse.  It is one of the most absorbing and articulate statements of the current status of relational psychoanalysis to date.

- Glen O. Gabbard, Ph.D., Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association

Relational theory can be viewed as bridging the gaps among multiple domains: between classical Freudian drive and interpersonal theory on one hand, and between interpersonal and object realtions theory on the other.  Lewis Aron charts this complex theoretical and historical llS9