When Minds Meet: The Work of Lewis Aron

This extraordinary volume offers a sampling of Lewis Aron’s most important contributions to relational psychoanalysis.

One of the founders of relational thinking, Aron was an internationally recognized psychoanalyst, sought after teacher, lecturer, and the Director of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. His pioneering work introduced and revolutionized the concepts of mutuality, the analyst’s subjectivity, and the paradigm of mutual vulnerability in the analytic setting. During the last few years of his life, Aron was exploring the ethical considerations of writing psychoanalytic case histories and the importance of self-reflection and skepticism not only for analysts with their patients, but also as a stance towards the field of psychoanalysis itself. Aron is known for his singular, highly compelling teaching and writing style and for an unparalleled ability to convey complex, often comparative theoretical concepts in a uniquely inviting and approachable way. The reader will encounter both seminal papers on the vision and method of contemporary clinical practice, as well as cutting edge newer writing from the years just before his death. Edited and with a foreword by Galit Atlas, each chapter is preceded by a new introduction by some of the most important thinkers in our field: Jessica Benjamin, Michael Eigen, Jay Greenberg, Adrienne Harris, Stephen Hartman, Steven Kuchuck, Thomas Ogden, Joyce Slochower, Donnel Stern, Merav Roth, Chana Ullman, and Aron himself.

This book will make an important addition to the libraries of experienced clinicians and psychoanalytic scholars already familiar with Aron’s work, as well as students, newer professionals or anyone seeking an introduction to relational psychoanalysis and one of its most stunning, vibrant voices.

Galit Atlas is on the faculty of the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She is the author of The Enigma of Desire: Sex, Longing and Belonging in Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2015) and Dramatic Dialogues (co-authored with Lewis Aron, Routledge, 2017). She is a faculty member at the Four Year Adult and National Training Programs at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP). She serves on the editorial board of Psychoanalytic Perspectives and is a psychoanalyst and clinical supervisor in private practice in New York City.