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In relational concepts in psychoanalysis: an integration, Stephen A. Mitchell presents a challenging, creative articulation of the ways in which relations with others shape and color psychic life. Bringing prodigious talent and breadth of knowledge to his task, Mitchell portrays contemporary psychoanalysis as dominated by two competing perspectives: Freud's drive theory and a cluster of theories that he depicts as relationally based. Mitchell sets as his goal the unification of an array of relational perspectives (primarily British object relations theory, interpersonal psychoanalysis, and self psychology) into a comprehensive theoretical framework. This perspective, which describes relations with others as the building blocks of psychic structure, is contrasted with aspects of Freudian drive theory throughout the book and occasionally with contemporary classical thought.
Within Mitchell's framework, “mind is composed of relational configurations” (p. 3). Mind becomes dyadic in nature and is defined as “transactional patterns and internal structures derived from an interactive, interpersonal field” (p. 17). His system rests on the premise that