A Systems Sensibility: Commentary on Judith Teicholz's “Qualities of Engagement and the Analyst's Theory”

I suggest that Teicholz'1 integrative sensibility, which emphasizes consensual agreement emerging from the mutual influence among psychoanalytic theoreticians, is compatible with a nonlinear, dynamic, open system process applied to Teicholz's perspective on psychoanalytic theory and to the stream of clinical process with her patient, Derek, as well. I contextualize some of Teicholz's ideas within a complex systems framework and ask questions hoping to expand the dialogue.

I propose that the cocreated qualities of engagement and modes of relating addressed by Teicholz, as well as listening—experiencing stances described by Fosshage (1997, 2003), may be experienced as both chosen and unbidden and may manifest as attitudes that are context-dependent, emergent properties of a specific dyadic system at a given moment.

Finally, I narrate, from my own perspective, my version of therapeutic action and change coconstructed by this analytic pair—my understanding of the intersubjective exchange—of self and interactive regulatory patterns between Teicholz and her patient, Derek, that evolve into a successful therapeutic outcome.