The Theory of Psychoanalysis : Influential Analysts/Books along the Way (Part V )

In their 1983 book, Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory, Jay Greenberg and Stephen Mitchell birthed Relational Theory in psychoanalysis. They wrote there: "The...more radical strategy for dealing with object relations has been to replace the drive theory model ( Freudian, my words) with a fundamentally different conceptual framework in which relations with others consitute the fundamental building blocks of life." In that book they took the older Interpersonalist Theory I wrote of earlier, and combined it with Object Relations Theory and Self Psychology to create the Fourth Major School of psychoanalytic thought, called Relational Theory. As the quote above reveals, they placed this theory over against Modern Freudian Theory and believed it would become the contemporary psychoanalytic theory for all. I discovered this text during my supervision years. Stephen Mitchell and Margaret Black went on in 1995 to publish Freud and Beyond, which emphasized the newer Relational Theory in the history of psychoanalytic theorizing. Of course I do not believe that Relational Theory needs to supplant Modern Freudian Theory. Instead I think it needs to be integrated into Modern Freudian Theory--especially in relation to work with lower functioning patients at the narcissistic/borderline level. I am certainly not alone in this view ( I have read my analyst collegue in the Virginia Psychoanalytic Society, Jerry Blackman's book, Getting the Diagnosis Right, and I think he would agree.) Most mainstream analysts and therapists today integrate all three of the newer major psychoanalytic schools of Object Relations, Self Psychology, and Relational Theory into their Modern Freudian Theory. This is what separates the Modern Freudians from the more Orthodox Freudians, who believe in nothing beyond Freud. Some of the authors I have read and several that I have heard speak include: The Modern Freudians (1998) by Ellman, Grand, Silvan, and Ellman; A New Freudian Synthesis (2010) by Druck, Ellman, Freedman, and Thaler; Psychodynamic Psychiatry by Glen Gabbard; Drive, Ego, Object and Self by Fred Pine, and the latest I have read--The Psychoanalytic Model of the Mind by Elizabeth Auchincloss.(2015.) The unique contribution of the last work by Auchincloss is she also integrates the newest knowledge from Cognitive Neuroscience into her understanding of Modern Freudian Theory. She says her book shows that: 1. The psychoanalytic model of the mind is consistent with a brain-based approach. 2. The psychoanalytic model of the mind is consistent with community psychiatry. 3 The psychoanalytic model of the mind is consistent with other well known models including the Cognitive Model. 4. The basic tenets of the psychoanalytic model of the mind are supported by empirical evidence. This text by a mainstream psychoanalyst and Modern Freudian reveals where psychoanalytic theorizing is headed in the future--toward incorporation of the objective sciences of Neuroscience, and the scientific and empirical validation of psychoanalysis. This future direction in Modern Freudian Theory is best exemplified in the South African psychoanalyst Mark Solms. He is both a neuropsychologist and a Modern Freudian psychoanalyst who began the even newer theoretical approach called Neuropsychoanalysis. I have listed his books and his personal influence on me in a previous post. The goal of Neuropsychoanalysis is to bring Modern Freudian Psychoanalysis back into Academia and the Natural Sciences. I am all in with this goal and have been reading in this area for the last five years. For the last 20+ years now I have been studying the Modern Freudian, mainstream, understanding of psychoanalytic theory and it's derivative treatment, psychoanalytic psychotherapy. And I have been practicing it as well for 25+ years now. Most of my continuing education in Theory and Practice has come about through the Virginia Psychoanalytic Society (colleagues and authors Jerry Blackman, Mike Camp, Janet Schiff, Susan Stones, etc.), and the American Psychoanalytic Association ( Glen Gabbard, Nancy Mc Williams, Mark Solms, etc.) It is through these analysts themselves, their writings and lectures, and their personal encouragement that I have been able to read, learn, and teach The Theory of Psychoanalysis along the way. Make a comment!! Ask a question!! Tell me who you are!!