You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Paul Ornstein's discussion of my article, “Self Psychology and Inter-subjectivity Theory: A Clinical Comparison” (1994 also in this volume), highlights the differing perspectives of and similarities between self psychology and intersubjectivity theory. It will not be possible for me to consider all of Ornstein's criticisms, so I intend to address certain key issues.
As someone who has profound respect for the contributions of self psychology, I welcome the opportunity to continue this dialogue. Stephen Mitchell (1992) has commented on the importance of comparing the nuances of modern theories of psychoanalysis in his discussion of a paper by Trop and Stolorow (1992). He states:
In my view, the battle against orthodoxy has been largely won; the real vitality and creativity in this field have shifted to efforts, like the present one, to develop postclassical, broadly relational approaches to mind, development, and the analytic situation. Because the battle has been won, it is now less interesting to recount the deficiencies of the classical model than to explore the subtle but quite important differences among postclassical perspectives [p. 443].
My original article and Ornstein's response to it represent two attempts to explore these types of differences among postclassical perspectives in