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Two new books: The Interpersonal Tradition: The origins of psychoanalytic subjectivity by Irwin Hirsch and Relational Freedom: Emergent properties of the interpersonal field by Donnel Stern provide absorbing and wide-ranging discourse about interpersonal psychoanalysis. The two books taken together canvass the genesis of interpersonal theory and technique. They also offer a perspective on the psychoanalytic climate in the United States dating back almost a century. The books implicitly demonstrate that the interpersonal tradition has been central to the changes that have led to contemporary psychoanalysis in the United States.
While offering complementary and at times converging themes and discussions, the two books have a different feel. The Interpersonal Tradition is a collection of papers that Hirsch wrote over a thirty year period. Stern's book, Relational Freedom, offers more recently written papers. Each book provides ample clinical material for the reader to be able to feel familiar with the technique of the interpersonal perspective. In this review I will describe the main themes and concepts in the two books and some directions in which they have steered psychoanalysis today.
The Interpersonal Tradition consists of Hirsch's collection of papers that were published in the span of years 1984-2014. Hirsch takes the reader through the development of his thought offering up-to-date commentary and reflection at the beginning of each chapter. In chapter 1 Hirsch develops a subjective concept of analyzability which differed from the prevailing discussions of analyzability at the original time of the writing of the chapter. Chapter 2 concerns the understanding of the analyst as an observing participant in contrast with the intrapsychic, objective model of the analyst. This conception is an evolution from Sullivan's concept of