A Most Complex Paradox: Rethinking the Individual

ABSTRACT

Inspired by the work of Louis Sander (2008), this article explores the paradox of the developing individual who is at once singular and self-regulating, as well as systems-embedded and systems-property organized. Relying on a background of intersubjective systems theory, relational theory, and psychoanalytic complexity theory, examining this paradox reveals a deeper understanding of the evolving person and, indeed, what it means to be an individual. It also posits that a substantial developmental step includes one’s capacity to tolerate two affectively discrepant dimensions of experience—that of being personal, singular, isolated, and agentic, and that of being intensely contextualized and relentlessly embedded in larger complex systems that determine much of one’s life situatedness.

Notes

¹ In particular, Sander’s groundbreaking chapter titled “Paradox and Resolution: From The Beginning” from “Living Systems, Evolving Consciousness, and the Emerging Person: A Selection of Papers from the Life Work of Louis Sander” edited by Gherardo Amadei and Ilaria Bianchi, 2008.

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Notes on contributors

William J. Coburn

William J. Coburn, Ph.D., Psy.D., is Founding Editor Emeritus of Psychoanalysis, Self and Context (formerly the International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology), Associate Editor of Psychoanalytic Dialogues, and an Editorial Board Member of Psychoanalytic Inquiry. He is a Faculty Member and Training and Supervising Analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles.