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The concept of intentionality is currently of interest to psychoanalysts because of its relationship to the development of healthy aggression in the first year of life, as well as to the expression of desire. Developmental psychoanalysts explore intentionality in their clinical work with children who are unable to access healthy aggression or create an internal structure that supports intentional action leading to the capacity to pursue desired goals. This panel, chaired by Phyllis Tyson, explored ways of understanding the meaning of both conscious and unconscious intentionality and its contribution to the development, expression, and pursuit of relationally desired goals leading to the attachment process during the first year of life. Arnold Modell spoke about the musicality of speech and its role in meaning-making between infants and parents, as well as in psychoanalysis. Molly Romer Witten then presented her work with infants and parents and her observations about the development of intentionality within the parent-infant relationship. Alexandra Harrison discussed the two presentations and shared her clinical experience of the role of intentionality and promoting agency in psychoanalytic work.
In her introduction, Tyson encouraged the group to think about the implications of intersubjectivity for psychoanalysis, as well as for issues outside the consulting room. She suggested that intentionality, embedded