The Self-as-Relational in Psychoanalysis: II. The Self as Related within the Analytic Process

Considerations of the concept of the self-as-relational, as formulated in the previous companion paper, are applied to the analytic relation and process. The view of the self as personal, relatively autonomous, individuated, relationally attuned and engaged is contrasted with the intersubjective and relationalist concept of the self as existing in and derivative from relational and intersubjective fields of interaction. The nature of intersubjectivity, as interpersonal interaction between persons who are also subjects, and as opposed to views of intersubjective communication—from subject to subject—is explored in developmental contexts and in the analytic relation. Intersubjectivity is better understood in these contexts as forms of interpersonal interaction. Application to issues related to analysis as a one- or two-person psychology are discussed. Analytic interaction is focused in terms of three prime areas of relatedness—transference-countertransference, real relation, and therapeutic alliance. Each

reflects the action of aspects of the self as it participates differentially in the interpersonal interaction of analysis to determine the analytic outcome.