Beyond Postmodernism Beyond Postmodernism identifies ways in which psychoanalysis has moved beyond the postmodern debate and discusses how this can be applied to contemporary practice. Roger Frie and Donna Orange bring together many of the leading authorities on psychoanalytic theory and practice to provide a broad scope of psychoanalytic viewpoints and perspectives on the growing interdisci- plinary discourse between psychoanalysis, continental philosophy, social theory and philosophy of mind. Divided into two parts, Psychoanalytic Encounters with Postmodernism and Psychoanalysis Beyond Postmodern- ism, this book • elaborates and clarifies aspects of the postmodern turn in psycho- analysis • furthers an interdisciplinary perspective on clinical theory and practice • contributes to new understandings of theory and practice beyond postmodernism. Beyond Postmodernism: New Dimensions in Clinical Theory and Practice providesafreshperspectiveontherelationshipbetweenpsychoanalysisand postmodernism and raises new issues for the future. It will be of interest to practicingpsychoanalystsandpsychologistsaswellasstudentsinterestedin psychoanalysis, postmodernism and philosophy. RogerFrieis Associate Professorof Human Development and Educational Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver; and faculty member at the William Alanson White Institute, New York. Donna Orange is supervisor and faculty member at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, New York, and the Institute for Specialization in Self Psychology and Relational Psychoanalysis in Rome/ Milan. Page Intentionally Left Blank Beyond Postmodernism New dimensions in clinical theory and practice Edited by Roger Frie and Donna Orange Firstpublished2009 byRoutledge 27ChurchRoad,Hove,EastSussexBN32FA SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada byRoutledge 270MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,anInformabusiness Copyright(cid:216)2009Selectionandeditorialmaterial,RogerFrieandDonna Orange;individualchapters,thecontributors. TypesetinTimesbyGarfieldMorgan,Swansea,WestGlamorgan PrintedandboundinGreatBritainbyTJInternationalLtd,Padstow, Cornwall PaperbackcoverdesignbyLisaDynan PaperbackcoverimagebyMarkHoutzager(www.markhout.com) Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor utilizedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orin anyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwriting fromthepublishers. Thispublicationhasbeenproducedwithpapermanufacturedtostrict environmentalstandardsandwithpulpderivedfromsustainableforests. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary Libraryof CongressCataloginginPublicationData Beyondpostmodernism:newdimensionsintheoryandpractice/editedby RogerFrieandDonnaOrange. p.;cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-415-46687-5(hbk.) – ISBN978-0-415-46688-2(pbk.)1. Psychoanalysis.2.Postmodernism.I.Frie,Roger,1965–II.Orange,DonnaM. [DNLM:1.Postmodernism.2.Psychoanalysis—trends.WM460B5736 2009] BF175.4.P45B492009 150.19'5—dc22 2008032520 ISBN:978-0-415-46687-5(hbk) ISBN:978-0-415-46688-2(pbk) Contents Notes on contributors vii Preface ix Introduction: coherence or fragmentation? Modernism, postmodernism, and the search for continuity 1 ROGERFRIE PART I Psychoanalytic encounters with postmodernism 25 1 Postmodern influences on contemporary psychoanalysis 27 MORRISN.EAGLE 2 Multiplicity and relational psychoanalysis: a Heideggerian response 52 JONFREDERICKSON 3 A strange convergence: postmodern theory, infant research, and psychoanalysis 69 JUDITHGUSSTEICHOLZ 4 Primary process of deconstruction: towards a Derridian psychotherapy 92 HEWARDWILKINSON PART II Psychoanalysis beyond postmodernism 115 5 Toward the art of the living dialogue: between constructivism and hermeneutics in psychoanalytic thinking 117 DONNAORANGE vi Contents 6 Trauma and human existence: the mutual enrichment of Heidegger’s existential analytic and a psychoanalytic understanding of trauma 143 ROBERTD.STOLOROW 7 Reconfiguring psychological agency: postmodernism, recursivity, and the politics of change 162 ROGERFRIE 8 Attitudes in psychoanalytic complexity: an alternative to postmodernism in psychoanalysis 183 WILLIAMJ.COBURN 9 Identity, identification, imagination: psychoanalysis and modern European thought after the postmodern turn 201 ANTHONYELLIOTT 10 Naturalizing relational psychoanalytic theory 220 ARNOLDH.MODELL Postscript: from postmodern skepticism to the search for psychoanalytic understanding 231 DONNAORANGE Index 237 Notes on contributors William J. Coburn, Ph.D., Psy.D. is supervising and training analyst and faculty member at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles and at the Northwestern Center for Psychoanalysis, Portland, Oregon. He is Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology and is an editorial board member of Psychoanalytic Inquiry. MorrisN.Eagle,Ph.D.isProfessorEmeritus,DernerInstituteofAdvanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University, New York. He was pre- viously Professor of Psychology at York University, Toronto. He is the author of Recent Developments in Psychoanalysis: A Critical Evaluation (McGraw-Hill, 1984) and has written more than 100 articles in psycho- analysis and psychology. Anthony Elliott, Ph.D. is Chair of Sociology at Flinders University, Australia, and Visiting Research Professor at the Open University, UK. He is the author and editor of twenty books, including most recently: Concepts of the Self (Polity, 2007, 2nd edition), The New Individualism (Routledge, 2005, with Charles Lemert), Subject to Ourselves: Social Theory, Psychoanalysis and Postmodernity (Paradigm, 2004, 2nd edition), and Social Theory since Freud (Routledge, 2004). JonFrederickson,M.S.W.isafacultymemberoftheWashingtonSchoolof Psychiatry, Washington, DC, where he has been chair of the Advanced Psychotherapy Training Program and Co-chair of the Supervision Training Program. He is author of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: LearningtoListenfrom MultiplePerspectives (TaylorandFrancis,1999) and several articles and book chapters on the relationship between postmodern theories and the concept of the person in psychoanalysis. RogerFrie,Ph.D.,Psy.D.isAssociateProfessorofEducationalPsychology and Human Development at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, and supervisor and faculty member at the William Alanson White Institute, New York. His recent books include Psychotherapy as a Human Science viii Notes on contributors (Duquesne University Press, 2006, with Daniel Burston) and Psycho- logical Agency: Theory, Practice, and Culture (The MIT Press, 2008). Arnold H. Modell, M.D. is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and training and supervising analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute. His most recent books include Imagination and the Meaningful Brain (MIT Press, 2003), The Private Self (Harvard University Press, 1993), and Other Times, Other Realities (Harvard University Press, 1990). Donna Orange, Ph.D., Psy.D. is supervisor and faculty member at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity and the Institute for Specialization in Self Psychology and Relational Psychoanalysis in Rome. She is co-author with Robert Stolorow and George Atwood of Worlds of Experience (Basic Books, 2002) and Working Intersubjectively (Analytic Press, 1997), and author of Emotional Understanding: Studies in Psychoanalytic Epistemology (Guilford Press, 1995). Robert D. Stolorow, Ph.D., Ph.D. is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and training and supervising analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles. He is author of Trauma and Human Existence (Routledge, 2007) and co-author of Worlds of Experience (Basic Books, 2002, with Donna Orange and George Atwood). Judith Guss Teicholz, Ed.D. is supervising analyst and faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis. She is author of Kohut, Loewald, and the Postmoderns (Analytic Press, 1999) and co-editor of Trauma, Repetition, and Affect Regulation (Other Press, 1998, with Daniel Kriegman). She is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology. Heward Wilkinson, M.Sc. is Hon. Fellow, UK Council for Psychotherapy, and a UKCP Registered Integrative Psychotherapist. He was Editor of the International Journal of Psychotherapy 1994–2004. His book on the poetic paradigm for psychotherapy, The Muse as Therapist: A New Poetic Paradigm for Psychotherapy, is currently in press with Karnac Books. Preface Roger Frie and Donna Orange Another book on postmodernism? Within the humanities, postmodernism is considered by many to be passe´. Even such central figures as Foucault andDerrida,whoearlyonheraldedthedeathofthesubjectandtheendless slippage of meaning, softened their positions towards the end of their careers. Yet within the world of psychology, and particularly within psychoanalytic theory and practice, postmodernism continues to be central – if not ascendant – in contemporary discussion and debate. The considerable time lag between the emergence of postmodernism in late 1960s France and the embrace of postmodern ideas by psychologists and psychoanalysts decades later suggests the extent to which the mental health professions, especially in North America, remain insulated from the humanities.Inouropinion,thisisaprofoundlimitationintheeducationof psychologists and psychoanalysts. Indeed, much of our writing to date has been motivated by a desire to demonstrate the importance of philosophy for clinical theory and practice. As scholars and practitioners, trained in philosophy, psychoanalysis and clinical psychology, we welcome the cross- disciplinary fertilization that the embrace of postmodernism signifies. But thiscross-disciplinaryapproach alsobrings withitahostofchallenges, not least because so many clinicians who embrace the label of postmodernism remain unfamiliar with philosophy and the humanities. Moreover, in our experience,cliniciansstilltendtobelievethatcriticalthinkingisantithetical to psychoanalytic practice, with its emphases on the search for meaning, understanding, and healing. Another way to understand the enthusiastic, if belated, reception of postmodernismintopsychoanalysisistoconsidertheauthoritarianandall- knowing heritage of traditional analytic approaches. An antidote to this authoritarianism was required and postmodern deconstructionism, with its skeptical unmasking of epistemological pretention, and of privilege and power,seemed tofill the need exactly. Within the North American context, the embrace of postmodernism is most evident in the school of relational psychoanalysis. Indeed, for many observers, postmodernism and relational psychoanalysis are today indelibly connected. Unfortunately, the post-