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The point is to travel the way which lies between us. The obstacles from here and from there are the same, the distance is the same from me to him, as from him to me.
—Letter from Swiss analyst Hans Trub to Martin Buber, speaking about a patient, 1926. (Buber & Agassi, 1999)
Ringstrom has articulated useful themes that deserve more conversation and exploration. However, his article reads as a Relational Psychoanalytic critique of Intersubjective Systems theory, rather than as the comparison that the title asserts. This commentary responds to some of the critiques raised by Ringstrom, and raises some critiques of its own.
I suspect that many of us have been asked by students and colleagues to articulate the similarities and differences between Relational Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic Intersubjective Systems theory. It is a daunting task, in part because the two theories operate primarily at different levels of abstraction. (I have more to say on this point later.) Teicholz (2001) has probably written the most even-handed, comprehensively critical, comparative explorations of the two theories, with no declared allegiance to either. Along with Stern's (1994) paper, Ringstrom's stands out as a most comprehensive attempt at an overview by authors more friendly to the Relational perspective. As far as I know, there are no comprehensive comparisons akin to Stern's and Ringstrom's written by one more friendly to the Intersubjective Systems perspective. All that said, although I think Ringstrom has articulated useful themes that deserve more conversation and exploration, his article reads as a Relational Psychoanalytic critique of Intersubjective Systems theory, rather than as the comparison that the title asserts.
Ringstrom and I agree that it is worthwhile to encourage people to think about what attracts them in these theories, and what are potential pitfalls. Thus, I explain why Intersubjective Systems theory makes sense to me, as opposed to defending it as th