What is it about?
This chapter focuses on relational and intersubjective psychoanalysis. It details how this modern framework successfully reduced narcissistic bias by positioning interpersonal relationships at the very center of psychic organization. However, the chapter demonstrates that a subtler narcissistic bias still persists within this paradigm. This is illustrated through an over-preoccupation with the therapist-patient dyad inside the consulting room, which often occurs at the expense of the patient's actual relationships with real people in their external world.
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Why is it important?
This chapter is crucial because it offers a necessary critical reading of the dominant mainstream in contemporary psychoanalysis—the relational-intersubjective turn. Rather than creating a new blind spot, this modern paradigm actually perpetuated and nurtured an existing narcissistic bias. Driven by its postmodern foundations, it minimizes the importance of objective truth in the patient's life, elevating instead the subjective co-constructions generated within the consulting room. By prioritizing imaginative creation over the boundaries of external reality, this approach directly aligns with and reinforces narcissistic fantasy, risking a deep detachment from the patient's actual lived relationships.
Perspectives
Critically examining the relational-intersubjective turn, particularly its postmodern foundations, led me to a vital realization. I recognized how an exclusive focus on the clinical dyad, which privileges co-created narratives within the room, can inadvertently cultivate a narcissistic fantasy detached from reality—all at the expense of the patient's actual, real-world relationships.
Orna Afek
Tamuz Institute
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This page is a summary of: The relational intersubjective school, January 2025, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.4324/9781003538295-6.
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