Premises of Interpersonal Theory

Premises of interpersonal theory are elucidated in order to crystallize its foundations and to point up the utility of discussing psychoanalytic theory on the level of premises. In regard to human psychology, interpersonal theory assumes an inextricable interpenetration of biology and external influences. It therefore questions assigning biology or “biologized” concepts predominance in explaining meaning or the contents of the mind. Biology is implicated in many interpersonal concepts, but not in the form implied in such concepts as drive or inherently arising endogenous states. Rather than an unfolding general nature, interpersonal theory assumes an outcome emerging from the interaction of manifold biological potentials with complex social influences. Such a perspective implies further assumptions about human impressibility, social determinism, psycho/social multidimensionality, complexity, and uniqueness. These assumptions lead to a focus on individual psychology, on character, for example, rather than general psychology, and on holistic/field conceptions of causality rather than the causal linkage of relatively isolated dimensions. Emphasis on drive and endogenous states eventuates in an underestimation of the complexity of personality formation and of the subtlety and power of the psycho/social experiential interaction.