Toward Mutual Recognition: Relational Psychoanalysis and the Christian Narrative [Paperback]

Introduction: Charting a Path Toward Mutual Recognition. Part I: Identification/Incarnation. The First Movement Toward Mutual Recognition: Theoretical Perspectives. Introducing Mandy: Clinical Perspectives. Identifying the Christian Narrative in Early Psychoanalysis: Historical Perspectives. Part II: Surrender/Crucifixion. The Second Movement Toward Mutual Recognition: Theoretical Perspectives. Surrendering to the Third with Mandy: Clinical Perspectives. Destruction and Survival of the Christian Narrative in Fairbairn and Winnicott: Historical Perspectives. Part III: Gratitude/Resurrection. The Third Movement Toward Mutual Recognition: Theoretical Perspectives. From Mourning to Resurrection with Mandy: Clinical Perspectives. In Grateful Memory: The Resurrection of Sandor Ferenczi and the Renewal of the Relational Covenant: Historical Perspectives. Conclusion: Continuing Paths Toward Mutual Recognition.

Ever since its nascent days, psychoanalysis has enjoyed an uneasy coexistence with religion. However, in recent decades, many analysts have been more interested in the healing potential of both psychoanalytic and religious experience and have explored how their respective narrative underpinnings may be remarkably similar.

In Toward Mutual Recognition, Marie T. Hoffman takes just such an approach. Coming from a Christian perspective, she suggests that the current relational turn in psychoanalysis has been influenced by numerous theorists - analysts and philosophers alike - who were themselves shaped by an embedded Christian narrative. As a result, the redemptive concepts of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection - central to the tenets of Christianity - can be traced to relational theories, emerging analogously in the transformative process of mutual recognition in the concepts of identification, surrender, and gratl3X