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Psychoanalysis advances as a field of inquiry through insights and writings, which, at their best, contain a fundamental paradox: They aim for and often achieve universality (validity and generalizability across the “universe” of psychoanalytic patients) while, at the same time, are idiomatic expressions of the author's personality, values, and personal aesthetic of thought. It is no wonder, then, that our literature is replete with dissonances that arise among our major theorists. How could it be otherwise when each lays claim to bedrock truth (e.g., insight into a general therapeutic principle, such as recognition), but each sees that truth differently? Moreover, each theorist views the other's truth claims through the lens of his or her own values and visions—indeed, his or her whole personality system—thereby virtually assuring that his or her rendering of the other's theory, especially if antagonistic, will, to some degree, distort the theory as intended and experienced by the theorist.
Self psychologists (and more recently, intersubjective systems theorists) and interpersonal and relational analysts have been debating certain theoretical differences for decades. This exchange has been strident at times, resulting in both a hardening of positions and hard feelings. Yet, there has also been mutual influence, bringing the two schools closer together and pushing each to expand their thinking further as they consider the arguments of the other. Moreover, the considerable philosophical and theoretical overlap between the two schools has caused increasing numbers of analytic practitioners, including some leading theorists, to identify with both perspectives and generate theoretical frameworks that are deeply integrative, not just superficially additive or eclectic.
Nonetheless, evidence of the historical dissonance still exists and was apparent in a paper Donna Orange was invited to publish in this journal in 2008 on the topic of recognition. The very wo