States of Relatedness

Abstract

Interpersonal and Relational psychoanalysis are large theories, umbrella theories, so that there is often as much disagreement within them as there is between them. The only answers to the question of how to untangle the relationship of the two theories with one another are the answers of individuals, and even then the answers depend on context. Sometimes the context is primarily theoretical or scholarly, sometimes a matter of personal commitment, and sometimes a political or even moral issue. I identify five different attitudes I have found in my own experience about the nature of the relationship between the two theories.

Keywords:

• interpersonal
• relational
• comparative