The Interpersonal Unconscious (The Library of Object Relations) - Softcover

Scharff, David E.; Scharff, Jill Savege

Softcover

ISBN 10: 076570871X ISBN 13: 9780765708717

Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc., 2011

Synopsis

In The Interpersonal Unconscious, the Scharffs explore the construction and expression of the unconscious in interpersonal interaction. The authors draw from individual analysis, conjoint psychotherapy with families and couples, and from the use of group process in teaching. They introduce chaos theory applied to dynamical systems and South American theories of the link and the analytic field, now available in English. Advances in development, neuroscience, ethology, and attachment theory all contribute to their expanded view of the unconscious mind and its relationships. In turn, the Scharffs' view of the interpersonal unconscious revises current views of development, clinical theory, and unconscious psychic organization.

The unconscious is not individual as Freud thought: It is fundamentally interpersonal at the same time that it feels intensely our own. We live in an unconscious field. Each of us contributes to it, and each is structured and enriched by it. We are social creatures, not only in our behaviors and interactions, but in the deepest recesses of our minds.

We can no longer conceive of the unconscious as an individual property according to Freud's original topographic and structural theories. Even though the individual unconscious is unique, paradoxically it is also shared in reciprocal interactions with intimate partners, work groups, and social groups. In this state of mutual influence, our unconscious minds are constantly under construction across the life cycle.

About this title

About the Author

David and Jill Scharff are co-founders of and supervising analysts at the International Psychotherapy Institute and clinical professors of psychiatry at Georgetown University Hospital. They are series editors of the Library of Object Relations at Jason Aronson and authors of many books including David's Refinding the Object and Reclaiming the Self and Jill's Projective and Introjective Identification and the Use of the Therapist's Self. They are in private practice as psychoanalysts with children and adults, couples, and families in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Edition details

• Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 076570871X
• ISBN 13: 9780765708717
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 220