Contemporary Interpersonal Theory
Contemporary Interpersonal Theory
Robert J. Katz, Ph.D. Westchester Center
Course Goal: To help fourth year candidates consolidate their unique and
overall understanding of psychoanalysis as well as their
specific take on psychoanalytic conception and its’
relationship to the way they choose to engage in the
psychoanalytic process. All of this will take place within a
context emphasizing the philosophy, theory and conceptual
foundations of Contemporary Interpersonal Theory.
I. Psychic Experience Defined
A. Definitions of Psychic Experience (this defines the basic focus
of psychoanalytic work and varies according to the conception of
different schools)
1. the difference between the classical (Arlow’s metaphor) and
the interpersonal conception (Sullivan’s field theory and its
implications)
a. Sullivan and Levenson’s‘no separate self’ conception
b. the ‘separate self’ conception of Wolstein, Fromm,
Hirsch, Fiscalini
c. the Existential conception of aloneness (vs. loneliness)
d. Freud: Oedipal issues and their relationship to the
separation experience
2. the nature of unconscious psychic experience
a. Freudian unconscious
b. Sullivan’s tripartite model
c. Relational unconscious (Bromberg’s multiple self)
d. the unconscious as a source of creativity
e. the unconscious in relation to perceived threats to the
integrity of the Self (Kohut and Wolstein)
II. Methodologies of Working With Psychic Experience Psychoanalytically
A. The Phenomenological Method
1. basic conception
a. Kant’s distinction between the noumenaand the
phenomena
b. the subject/object split
c. Binswanger’s experiential modes (Umwelt, Mitwelt,
Eigenwelt)
d. definitions of clinical phenomenology
e. the clinical and philosophical implications of the
phenomenological spirit (“To things themselves”)
2. basic clinical technique of the phenomenological method
3. applicability to other ways of working
4. the concept of phenomenological degrees of freedom (this is
a tool that helps to determine the degree to which any specific
metapsychological concept interferes with the direct and
unique understanding of clinical material resulting in the type
of sterile understanding that derives from understanding on a
priori basis)
a. the implicit phenomenology in Sullivan’s method of a
‘detailed inquiry’
b. the phenomenological approach as applied to Classical
and Self Psychology
B. The Relational Method
1. Basic Concepts
a. the basic interpersonal foundation of a two person psychology
b. the concept of the ‘third’ (Benjamin & Ogden)
c. the role of transference and countertransference
d. enactments
e. the implicit phenomenological thrust of this approach
C. The Interpersonal Approach
1. Classical Sullivan
a. a two person approach in a one person atmosphere
b. Sullivan’s developmental schema
c. Sullivan’s concept of transference (prototaxic,
parataxic and syntaxicexperietial modes)
d. the movement towards intimacy
e. Ferenczi, (the grandfather of the interpersonal
movement) his basic ideas and loving exploratory spirit
2. Contemporary Interpersonal
a. the evolution of Sullivan’s ‘field theory’
b. Erwin Singer’s contribution
c. Schachtel’s contribution
d. freedom and responsibility
e. position on diagnosis
f. free range of technique
g. Fromm-Reichmann’s emphasis on loneliness and the
overriding intimate intent of intervening from a
contemporary interpersonal position
h. the emphasis on process over content
i. the deepening of the therapeutic relationship derived
from a focus on the direct and immediate relationship
transpiring between patient and analyst
j. the role of phantasy in interpersonal theory
k. differing conceptions of unconscious experience
III. Contemporary Interpersonal Theory Divided (the illusion of unique
individuality vs. the collusion of unique individuality)
A. the basic foundation of the work of Edgar Levenson
B. the basic foundation of the work of Benjamin Wolstein
IV. Working With the separate SELF in Contemporary Interpersonal
Theory
A. Fromm’s technique (the ‘core to core’ encounter)
B. Singer’s emphasis on the centrality of identity
C. Wolstein’s conception and technique
V. The Lost Art of Character Analysis
A. the definition and dynamic functioning of character
1. the utility of character in the psychoanalytic formulation of
a case
a. the creation of unique labels that capture the
patient’s character
b. the relationship (transference) to inanimate objects
c. the nature of characterological transference
d. working with characterological rigidity
e. Fromm’s cultural typology
VI. Working With Narcissism From a Contemporary Interpersonal
Position
A. the ubiquity of narcissism in both the transference and
countertransference
1. Work of Irwin Hirsch (the analyst’s self interest)
a. elaboration of the basic structure of interpersonal
relations around the concepts of “me vs you,”
“I-Thou” and the basic distinction between “I”and me”
2. The cultural patterning of the ‘narcissistic character’ (the
eradication of interiority and the SELF)
a. Fromm’s marketing character
b. the influence of digital techology (Strenger’s
“Designed SELF)
c. the Protean SELF (Robert LIfton)
d. the Saturated Self (Kenneth Gergen)
e. the flattened multiple Self (Phillip Cushman)
3. The direct engagement of narcissistic ways of being -
the work of John Fiscalini
VII. Deepening the Psychoanalytic Encounter
A. the conception of the nature of the psychoanalytic
relationship
1. accepting the symbiotic bond existing between patient
and analyst
2. Ghent’s concept of ‘surrender’
a. sadomasochism: the perversion of surrender
b. the masochistic need to reach the resistant patient
c. the sadistic need to NOT reach the difficult patient
3. the role of spontaneity and responding to the moment
4. the role of self exposure
5. attunement and resistance to transference cues
6. the iatrogenic factors that generate resistance due to a
lack of mutuality
a. diagnosis and guiding conceptions of mental health
b. the analyst’s unconscious expectations
7. the use of unconscious modes of listening
VIII. A GPS of Clinical Intervention: an Examination of the Basic
Clinical Controversies
(This is an examination of many of the basic dichotomies and
controversies that the analyst is presented with daily( e.g.
an intratrapsychic vs. an interpersonal focus). It is intended to
help the candidate more precisely locate the clinical conception
guiding any specific intervention as well as consolidate the
conceptions taught in class - see attachment.)
IX. The Creative Psychoanalyst
A. Psychoanalysis and the Creative Process
1. brief review of the dynamic conception of the creative
process (regression in the service of the ego, Kris)
a. the role of the unconscious in creativity
b. the role of the freedom to experience (Wolstein)
c. the creative element in the construction of
personality and psychopathology
d. the neglected concept of aesthetics and its
relationship to the construction of psychic
experience
2. Schachtel’s concepts of allocentricand autocentric
perception
3. the construction of clinical intervention: the synthesis
of theory, process and countertransference
a. the intimate intent : guiding force of clinical inter-
vention according to the overriding spirit of
Sullivan’s two person model
b. the construction of clinical intervention according
to a model based on the aesthetic configuration
of a separate SELF
X. The Denial of Death in Psychoanalytic Conception and Practice
A. Conception
1. the relationship between death anxiety and separation
anxiety (the work of Otto Rank)
2. basic existential vulnerability and its relationship to
the experiences of transience and permanence
B. Practice
1. listening for death anxiety derivatives
2. the lack of the sense of urgency and its relationship to
the denial of death
C. the Existential Crisis
1. the relationship between narcissism and death
anxiety ( the narcissist’s inability to accept death and
surrender to life)
2. forms of immortality
a. relationships
b. creativity
Bibliography: Contemporary Interpersonal Theory
Weeks 1 & 2 Psychic Experience Defined
Atwood, G. & Stolorow, R.. Structures of Subjectivity:
Explorations in Psychoanalytic Phenomenology. New Jersey
Analytic Press,1984. Ch. 1.
Von Glasserfeld, E. An Introduction to Radical Constructivism in
Watzlawick, P. The Invented Reality. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 1984. pp. 17-41.
Week 2
Stolorow, R & Atwood, G. Three Realms of the Unconscious in
Mitchell, S. & Aaron, L. Relational Psychoanalysis. (1992) New
Jersey: Analytic Press pp. 365-368
Bromberg, P. Standing In the Spaces. New Jersey: Analytic
Press, 1998, pp. 267-291.
Week 3 Methodologies of Working With Psychic Experience
Psychoanalytically
Ogden, The Conception of Internal Object Relations. International Journal of
Psychoanalysis (1983) 64 pp.227- 241.
Wolstein, B. Five Empirical Psychoanalytic Methods. Contemporary
Psychoanlysis Vol. 26 (2) 1990 pp. 237 - 257.
Week 4. Contemporary Interpersonal Theory Divided
Levenson, E. The Interpersonal Model in Rothstein, A. Models of the Mind.
Ch. 4 pp. 49 -69.
Wolstein, B. Transference and Resistance as Psychic Experience. Contemporary
Psychoanalysis Vol. 19 (2) 1983 pp. 276 - 295.
Week 5. Working With the Separate SELF in Contemporary Interpersonal
Theory
Landis, B. Fromm’s Approach to Psychoanalytic Technique. Contemporary
Psychoanalysis Vol. 17 1981 pp. 537 - 551.
Singer, E. Identity vs Identification: A Thorny Issue. Review of Existential
Psychology Vol. 5 (2) 1965 pp. 160 - 176.
Week. 6 The Lost Art of Character Analysis
Liebert, R. The Concept of Character: An Historical Review in Glick, R. &
Meyers, D. Masochism 1988 New Jersey: Analytic Press pp. 27 - 41.
Reich, W. Character Analysis 1949 New York: Noonday Press Ch. 1 & 4.
Week 7 Working With Narcissism From a Contemporary Interpersonal Position
Grey, A. A Spectrum of Psychoanalytic Self Theories in Fiscalini, J. & Grey, A.
Narcissism and the Interpersonal Self. 1993 New York: Columbia Press Ch. 1
Fiscalini, J. The Psychoanalysis of Narcissism in Narcissism and the
Interpersonal Self Ch.15
Hirsch, I. Coasting in the Countertransference (2008) New York: Analytic
Press. Chs,1,2`
Week 8. Deepening the Psychoanalytic Encounter
Ghent, M. Masochism, Submission, Surrender: Masochism as a Perversion of
Surrender Contemporary Psychoanalysis 1990 Vol. 26 (1) pp. 108 - 135.
Wilner, W. The Nature of Intimacy in Contemporary Psychoanalysis 1975 Vol. 2
pp. 206 - 227.
Week 9. A GPS of Clinical Intervention: An Examination of the Basic Clinical
Controversies
Hirsch, I. Subjectivity and the Analysts’ Personal Freedom: Analytic Theory and
Technique in Light of Each Analysts’ Unique Individuality (Unpublished)
Benjamin, J Beyond Doer and Done to: An Intersubjective View of
Thirdness. (2000). Vol.73 Psychoanalytic Quarterly. pp. 5-46.
Week 10. The Creative Psychoanalyst
Schachtel, E Metamorphosis 1959 New York: Basic Books, Ch. 10
Week 11. The Denial of Death in Psychoanalytic Conception and Practice
Hoffman, I. (1979) Death Anxiety and Adaptation to Mortality in
Psychoanalytic Theory. Annual of Psychoanalysis. Vol.7. pp.233-267.
Yalom, I. Existential Psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books,
193 Ch. 4.