Yet, activities involving self-definition, on
many different levels, have always been a central human concern, even more so
for people living in our time. What does it mean to be a person? What sort of
persons are we? How are we connected and related to each other? This sort of
self-reflection has become a preoccupying concern—on a global level, in the
face of self-contamination and self-annihilation; on an international level, in
the wake of astounding shifts in the way nations are positioning themselves vis-à-vis
each other; on a national level, in the context of shrinking economic and
political horizons; and on an individual level, in the wake of historically
unprecedented shifts in social, economic, and gender roles.
The central focus on self in psychoanalytic
theories of the second half of the 20th century reflects these concerns, very
different from those of Freud’s patients, who lived in a much more stable,
hierarchical society.
Further Developments in
Interpersonal Psychoanalysis, 1980s-2010s: Evolving Interest in the Analyst’s
Subjectivity, Chap 3, kindle location 1195-1202
