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Psychoanalysis and adaptive theory have not always coexisted harmoniously. This may in part be attributed to the view that adaptive theory has been open to the
influences of paradigms that are other than those of psychoanalysis itself and in particular those of sociology, philosophy and more recently the cognitive science. Interdisciplinary approach has more often been grafted to orthodox psychoanalysis rather than inherent in its development. Those who have attempted to weave the insights of the humanistic sciences, especially cultural and political ones, have been rejected, and for the most part separated (voluntarily or excommunicated) from the body of organized psychoanalytic institutions. Fortunately, the past is not always prelude to the future and so it is that today there is considerable rapprochement between adaptive theory and psychoanalysis. A leader in this movement has been the practicing psychoanalyst Marco Bacciagaluppi. In his book Paradigms in Psychoanalysis: An Integration, the author not only gives us the benefits of his long experience in the application of adaptive theory to the everyday work by a series of clinical vignettes taken from his own case material, but he also proffers an “integration” of differing paradigms that cut across many disciplines.
Bacciagaluppi (p. xix) lists nine specific paradigms to which he devotes a chapter. They are (1) Genetics, (2) Neurobiology, (3) Attachment Theory, (4) Infant research, (5) Trauma, (6) The relational model, (7) The family system, (8) The socio-cultural level and (9) Prehistory. Each paradigm, he tells us, has “one central source.” (1) Rosenthal ; (2) Solomon and Siegal ; (3) Bowlby (1988); (4) Stern ; (5) Herman ; (6) Greenberg and Mitchell ; (7) Hoffman ; (8) Fromm and (9) Eisler .
Some of the paradigms are developed more than others. For example, in Chapter 1 (Genetics) (p. 1) he defines fundamental genetics as: “the phenotype (what appears) is the result of the interaction of the genotype with