Relational Psychoanalysis: Theoretical and Technical Implications of a Changing
Paradigm
Jody Messler Davies, Ph.D.
Spring 2010
This course examines the way in which certain early papers led to subtle shifts in
key psychoanalytic concepts which eventually gave way to a more pervasive
epistemological shifts in psychoanalytic thinking. The course then explores the ways in
which this shift changed our theoretical and clinically/technical understanding of some of
these concepts.
Please note that not all readings listed will be assigned. The class will decide on which
articles to concentrate, or different segments of the class will read different papers.
Week 1: Introduction
Mitchell, S.A.. Ch1. The Relational Matrix (#1) and Ch 2 “Drive” and the
Relational Matrix.(#2) In, Relational Concepts. Ppl 17-62
Yalom- Lying on the Couch- optional over the course of the semester.
Part I. The first weeks of the semester focus on a reading of early relational papers
which created a background against which a subtle paradigm shift began to evolve.
Class sessions will focus on a careful reading of these papers and on the theoretical
and technical implications which follow from them.
Week 2: Early Papers I
Hoffman,I.Z. (1983) The patient as interpreter of the analyst’s experience.
Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 19, pp. 389422. (#3)
Mitchell, S. A. (1993) Introduction and Ch 1. What the Patient Needs? A
Revolution in Theory. In Hope and Dread in Psychoanalysis. Pp. 1-39.(#4)
Mitchell, S. A. Ch. 2 What Does The Analyst Know? In Hope and Dread in
Psychoanalysis. Pp. 40-66.(#5)
Week 3: Constructivism
Hoffman, I.Z. (1991) Toward a social-constructivist view of the psychoanalytic
situation. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 1, pp 74-105 (#6)
Hoffman, I.Z. (1992) Some Practical implications of a social- constructivist
view of the psychoanalytic situation. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 2, pp. 287-304.(#7)
Stern, D. (1983) Unformulated Experience. Contemporary Psychoanalysis.
19(1), pp. 71-99. (#8)
1
Week 4: Early Papers II
Mitchell, S.A. (1993) Ch 3. The Two Revolutions Taken Together. In Hope
and Dread in Psychoanalysis. pp. 67-91 (#9)
Ghent, E. (1990) Masochism, submission and surrender: masochism as a
perversion of surrender. Contemporary Psychoanalysis. 26(1). Pp. 108-135. (#10)
Aron, L. (1991) The patient’s experience of the analyst’s subjectivity.
Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 1(1). Pp. 29-51. (#11)
Part II. The second section of this course will focus on the reformulations of models
of mind which have become widely accepted within the relational perspective. The
emphasis will be on reconsiderations of psychoanalytic technique which emerge
from these reformulated mental models.
Week 5: Organizations of Self
Mitchell, S. A. (1991) Contemporary perspectives on self: toward an
integration. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 1(1), Pp. 121-147. (#12)
Davies, J. M. (1996) Linking the pre-analytic with the postclassical: Integration,
dissociation, and the multiplicity of unconscious process. Contemporary Psychoanalysis.
32, pp 553-575. (#13)
Davies, J. M. (1998) The multiple aspects of multiplicity: Symposium on
clinical choices in psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Dialobues. 8(2). Pp. 195-206 (#14)
Bromberg, P. (1993) Shadow and Substance: A relational perspective on
clinical process. Psychoanalytic Psychology. 10, Pp. 147-168. (#15)
Week 6: Intersubjectivity
Benjamin, J. (1990) Recognition and destruction? An outline of
intersubjectivity. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 7 (suppl.) pp. 33-47. (#16)
Ogden, T. (1994) The analytic third: Working with intersubjective clinical
facts. International Journal of Psychoanalysis. 75: Pp. 3-19. (#17)
Stolorow, R. and Atwood, G. (1992) Three realms of the unconscious. In
Contexts of being: The intersubjective foundations of Psychological Life. The Analytic
Press. (#18)
Week 7: The Relational Unconscious I: Conflict, Negotiation, and Paradox
Mitchell, S. A. Ch 10 Penelope’s loom: Psychopathology and the analytic
process. In Relational Concepts in Psychoanalysis. Pp. 271-308 (#19)
Ghent,E. (1992) Process and paradox. Psychoanalytic Dialogues.2(2) Pp. 135159. (#20)
Pizer, S. (1992) The negotiation of paradox in the analytic process.
Psychoanalytic Dialogues. 2(2). Pp. 215-240. (#21)
Week 8: The Relational Unconscious II: Trauma and Dissociation Part I
2
Davies, J. M. and Frawley, M. G. (1991) Dissociative processes and transferencecountertransference paradigms in the psychoanalytically oriented treatment of adult
survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 2(1) Pp. 5-36. (#22)
Davies, J.M. and Frawley, M.G., (1994) Chs 4 and 9 In Treating the Adult
Survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Psychoanalytic Perspective. (#23)
Week 9: Trauma and Dissociation: Part II
Davies, J. M. (In press) Speaking the unthinkable: Vicissitudes of traumatic
attachment in transference-countertransference space. In Relational Bonds Dissociative
Barriers: Analytic Subjectivity and the Self Reflective Process. (#24)
Bromberg (1996) Standing in the spaces: The multiplicity of self and the
psychoanalytic relationship. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 32, Pp. 509-535.(#25)
Seligman, S. (1999) Integrating Kleinian theory and intersubjective infant
research: Observing projective identification. Psychoanalytic Dialogues. (#26)
Silverman, R. C. and Lieberman, A. (1999) Negative maternal attributions,
projective identification and the intergenerational transmission of violent relational
patterns. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 9(2), Pp. 161-186. (#27)
Part III. The last third of the semester will focus on a study of the ways in which
ideas about transference and countertransference have shifted within the relational
model, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between the analyst’s use of
his/her own subjectivity and the facilitation of a self reflective process within the
patient.
Week 10: Transference/Countertransference I: Neutrality and Influence
Renik, O. (1993) Analytic interaction: Conceptualizing technique in light of
the analyst’s irreducible subjectivity. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly. LXII, Pp. 55-571.
(#28)
Mitchell, S. A. Influence and Autonomy in Psychoanalysis. Chapter 6 The
Analyst’s Intentions. 169-202. New Jersey: The Analytic Press (#29)
Hoffman, I. Z. ( In Press) The myths of free association: possibility and
potential in the analytic relationship. (#30)
Week 11: Transference/Countertransference III:The Analyst’s Subjectivity and The
Patient’s Self Reflective Processes. Part I
Davies, J. M. (1994) Love in the afternoon: a relational reconsideration of
desire and dread in the countertransference. Psa. Dial. 4(2), (#31)
Jacobs, T. (1999) On the question of self disclosure by the analyst: Error or
advance in technique? Psychoanal. Q. pp. 159-183. (#32)
Davies, J. M. (1999) Getting cold feet, defining safe enough borders:
dissociation, integration and multiplicity in the analyst’s experience of the
transference/countertransference. Psa. Quart. (#33)
3
Slochower, J. A. (1996) Holding and Psychoanalysis: A Relational Perspective.
Chapter 2. Pp. 13-33. (#34)
Weel 12: The Analyst’s Subjectivity and the Self Reflective Process. Part II
Slavin. M. and Kriegman, D. (1998) Why the analyst has to change? Psa. Dial.
8(2). (#35)
Fonagy, P. (2002) Mentalization and Affect Regulation. Chapters 10 (#36)
Mitchell, S. A. (1999) Relationality Chapter 7. New Jersey: The Analytic
Press. (#37)
Week 13 and 14: Transference/Countertransference IV: The Erotic
Davies, J. M. (1998) Between the disclosure and foreclosure of erotic
transference-countertransference: can psychoanalysis find a place for adult sexuality?
Psa. Dial. 8(6)(#38A)
Hoffman, I. Z. (1998) Poetic transformations of erotic experience. Psa. Dial.
8(6)(#38B)
Davies, J. M. (2003) Falling in love with love: Oedipal and Post-Oedipal
manifestations of idealization, mourning and erotic masochism. Psa. Dial. 13(1) 128.(#39)
Stein, R (1998) The enigmatic dimension of sexual experience: the “otherness”
of sexuality and primal seduction. Psa. Quart. 67, 594-625. (#40)
Benjamin, J. (199 ) What angel would hear me?: The erotics of transference.
Psych. Inq. 14: 535-557. (#41)
Week 15: Repetition Compulsion and Therapeutic Impasse
Davies, J. M. (2004) Whose bad objects are we anyway?: repetition and our
elusive love affair with evil. Psa. Dial. 14(5)(#42A)
Benjamin, J. (2004) Discussion of Davies. Psa. Dial. 14(5). (#42B)
Fonagy and Target. Discussion of Davies (#42C)
Slochower, J. A. (1996) Holding and Psychoanalysis: A Relational
Perspective. Ch. 5, Holding and Ruthlessness and Hate. Pp, 77-96. New Jersey: The
Analytic Press (#43)
4
5