Relationality

Stephen A. Mitchell

"In Relationality: From Attachment to Intersubjectivity, Mitchell provides a broad integrative framework for understanding the relationships among recent psychoanalytic concepts that delineate various aspects of human relatedness." "Mitchell begins with a thorough examination of the seminal work of Hans Loewald, which he draws on to develop a framework for housing different psychoanalytic concepts according to their respective modes or levels of organization. He goes on to explore the relationship between the rich research tradition on attachment that has grown out of John Bowlby's work and the theoretical and clinical insights embodied in W. R. D. Fairbairn's object relations theory. Ever appreciative of the radical implications of Fairbairn's theory, he argues against the dilution of Fairbairn's vision in recent "mixed models" of theorizing. Mitchell concludes by employing his framework of relationality to explore the complex workings of love and hate on both sides of the analytic relationship and the clinical choices with which these workings confront the clinician on a daily basis. Here, as in his previous writings, Mitchell espouses a clinical approach equally notable for its responsiveness and its responsible restraint."--BOOK JACKET.