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Sibling interactions traditionally were conceived psychoanalytically in “vertical” and parentified oedipal terms and overlooked in their own right, for complicated reasons (Colonna and Newman 1983). Important work has been done to right this, from the 1980s and onward, with conferences and writings. Juliet Mitchell's 2000 and, in particular, her 2003 books, for example, have brought “lateral” sibling relations forcefully to the forefront of insights, especially about sex and violence, with the added interdisciplinary impact of illuminating upheaval in global community interactions as well as having implications for clinicians.
A clinical example from the analysis of an adult woman with a ten-years-younger sister will show here how we need both concepts to help us understand complex individual psychic life. The newer “lateral” sibling emphasis, including Mitchell's “Law of the Mother” and “seriality,” can be used to inform the older “vertical” take, to enrich the full dimensions of intersubjective oedipal and preoedipal reciprocities that have been foundational in shaping that particular analysand's inner landscape. Some technical recommendations for heightening sensitivity to the import of these dynamics will be offered along the way here, by invoking Hans Loewald's useful metaphor of the analytic situation as theater.