You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Beyond Doer and Done To is a comprehensive summary — as elaborated over more than a quarter of a century — of Jessica Benjamin's theoretical contribution to the relational movement. Though the main title, Beyond Doer and Done To, is colloquial, it conjures up a rich conceptualization of mental life. The subtitle, Recognition Theory, Intersubjectivity and the Third, grounds Benjamin's work upon a trio of abstractions, each of which she explicates with respect to the other two. Thirdness, for example, emerges from an intersubjective matrix that generates mutual recognition. Further, Benjamin's applications of the terms reflect her interdisciplinary roots1 — including philosophy, feminist studies, and infant observation — while spanning four domains: infant development,2 sexuality, sociopolitical relations, and clinical practice. The book thus stands as a thoroughgoing manifesto of a two-person psychology.
Benjamin's early education involved the study of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin and further on at the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory in Germany, where she was drawn to a humanizing Hegelian version of Marxism (Saperstein, 2017). So, it is no surpise that the fundamental social pathology that Benjamin names in the title of her book is based, in part, on Hegel's mythical master-slave encounter. According to Kojeve (1969), in Hegel's account: