Relationality From Attachment to Intersubjectivity [Paperback]

In his final contribution to the psychoanalytic literature published two months before his untimely death on December 21, 2000, the late Stephen A. Mitchell provided a brilliant synthesis of the interrelated ideas that hover around, and describe aspects of, the relational matrix of human experience.  Relationality charts the emergence of the relational perspective in psychoanalysis by reviewing the contributions of Loewald, Fairbairn, Bowlby, and Sullivan, whose voices converge in apprehending the fundamental relationality of mind.  Mitchell draws on the multiple dimensions of attachment, intersubjectivity, and systems theory in espousing a clinical approach equally notable for its responsiveness and
responsible restraint.  Relationality signals a new height in Mitchell's always illuminating writing (Nancy Chodorow) and marks the coming of age of the relational perspective in psychoanalysis (Peter Fonagy).Part I: From Ghosts to Ancestors: The Psychoanalytic Vision of Hans Loewald.Language and Reality. Drives and Objects. Part II: Levels of Organization.An Interactional Hierarchy. Attachment Theory and Relationality. Fairbairn's Object-Seeking: Between Paradigms. Intersubjectivity: Between Expressiveness and Restraint in the Analytic Relationship.

This particular volume, like so much of Mitchells work, is noteworthy for its sparkling originality and creativity.  It is written with obvious care, great honesty, clarity, and structure. . . [It] exhibits many facets of Stephen Mitchells ability to create, interpret, and transmit psychoanalytic theory.

- Mark Somerstein, Psychoanalytic Social Work

Relationalityimparts new theoretical depth, substance, and complexity to relational psychoanalysis, systematizing its different components and documenting how it has been saturated by various historical strands within psycholã