Author Description

In Contexts of Being: The Intersubjective Foundations of Psychological Life, Robert Stolorow and George Atwood complete the circle begun with Faces in a Cloud (1979) and continued with Structures of Subjectivity (1984) and Psychoanalytic Treatment: An Intersubjective Approach (1987, with Bernard Brandchaft). Having demonstrated the degree to which psychological theory is influenced by the subjective world of the psychological theorist, explored the "structures of subjectivity" that organize the subjective world, and applied the intersubjective perspective to a broad array of clinical issues, they now extend intersubjectivity theory to a rethinking of the foundational pillars of psychoanalytic theory. Stolorow and Atwood begin with a penetrating critique of the concept of the isolated individual mind; this myth, they argue, has long obstructed recognition of the intersubjective foundations of psychological life. They next proceed to a series of chapters that reframe, from the standpoint of intersubjectivity theory, basic assumptions of the psychoanalytic theory of mental life. These assumptions relate to the concept of the unconscious, the relation between mind and body, the concept of trauma, and the understanding of fantasy. Concluding chapters on "varieties of therapeutic alliance" and "varieties of therapeutic impasse" further exemplify the ability of intersubjectivity theory to reorient the psychoanalytic therapist, providing fresh strategies for understanding and addressing the most challenging clinical contingencies. A brilliantly focused exposition of "the intersubjective foundations of psychological life," Contexts of Being is the conceptual culmination of Stolorow and Atwood's earlier studies. Here the authors explain why the perspective of intersubjectivity cannot be reduced to a clinical sensibility that can be grafted onto existing psychoanalytic theory. Rather, they argue, the intersubjective perspective has methodological and epistemological implications that mandate a radical revision of all aspects of psychoanalytic thought. Contexts of Being is not only a cogent elaboration of these implications, but an important first step in effecting the sweeping revision that follows from them.