http://www.nytimes.com/1977/03/31/archives/dr-harold-kelman-founder-of-institute-of-psychoanalysis.html
The theoretical thinking and view of clinical psychoanalysis of Harold Kelman—the successor of Karen Horney—relate in many ways to those of Stern and other intersubjectively oriented clinicians and researchers.
On phenomenology and existentialism, Kelman writes (1971, pp. 423-424, abridgement of original), among other things, that:
existential psychoanalysis is oriented towards man-in-the-world, his existence, in contrast to the more scientifically orientated psychoanalysis which is preoccupied with the essence - abstraction and generalisation. While the latter deals with objectivity, the former - the existential - is more preoccupied by subjectivity and by existence which precedes essence. Here all events are unique (and not a repetition of the transference neurosis). The text of the former is literary and scholarly while that of the latter is poetic and filled with images, metaphors and paradoxes.
Kelman highlights some concepts, such as existential neurosis, with its lack of lived purpose in life and furthermore the interpersonal meeting—and then not so much the meeting itself, but rather the inner decisive experience that springs from this, during which one's personal philosophy may change and which may even result in a restructuring of one's whole personality. The meeting is an interpersonal experience that has not so much to do with transference in the strict sense, since it is transforming just because the meeting is something completely new.
Finally (Kelman, 1968, 1971), he describes kairos: the right moment for the analyst to actively intervene in a longer psychological process within the patient, and how this should be done with total presence. The opportunity is unique and will not reappear. If the analyst steps in at the wrong time, it is likely to put both the relationship and the patient at risk. (Ramberg 2006, p. 19)
Ramberg, L. (2006). In Dialogue with Daniel Stern: A Review and Discussion of The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life. Int. Forum Psychoanal., 15(1):19-33
