Recognition and Reflection in Infancy and Psychotherapy: Convergences of Attachment Research with Psychoanalysis

ABSTRACT

Psychoanalysts of various persuasions share a commitment to reflection and recognition as core values in everyday clinical work. This suggests convergences between analytic perspectives that might otherwise be underestimated. With other analytic approaches in the background, this article emphasizes parallels between the attachment researchers’ emphasis on reflection and psychological coherence and the Bionian conceptualization of thinking as a special developmental achievement. With regard to clinical analysis, specific discussions of the value of attention to variations in the quality of reflective thinking, with analysands with varied psychopathology, are offered. In addition, an aspect of transference is clarified as a state of mind without “metacognition.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephen Seligman

Stephen Seligman, D.M.H., is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco; Joint Editor-in-Chief, Psychoanalytic Dialogues; Training and Supervising Analyst, San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California; and author of Relationships in Development: Infancy, Intersubjectivity and Attachment.