Contribution to psychoanalysis
The term "relational psychoanalysis" was first used by Greenberg and Mitchell in 1983 to bridge the traditions of interpersonal relations, as developed within interpersonal psychoanalysis and object relations, as developed within contemporary British theory. Due in large measure to the seminal work of Stephen Mitchell, the term "relational psychoanalysis" grew and began to accrue to itself many other influences and developments.[4] Various tributaries—interpersonal psychoanalysis, object relations theory, self psychology, empirical infancy research, and elements of contemporary Freudian and Kleinian/Bionian thought—flow into this tradition, which understands relational configurations between self and others, both real and fantasized, as the primary subject of psychoanalytic investigation.
Relational psychoanalysis has become the dominant form of American contemporary psychoanalysis. Lewis Aron's contributions to the field include:
- the development and expansion of relational theory and practice.
- a comprehensive examination of the patient's experience of the analyst's subjectivity.
- a view of psychoanalysis that emphasizes mutual regulation and mutual recognition, even within the context of a certain necessary asymmetry of roles and responsibilities.
- studies on the ethics of psychoanalysis and particularly the ethics of writing about patients.
- examination of controversies in psychoanalytic education and psychoanalytic institutions.
- explorations of psychoanalysis, religion, and spirituality.
- systematic exploration of the historically defined distinction between psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.
- the development of a "progressive psychoanalysis" for the twenty-first century.
