To Whom Does the Subject Speak? Between the Relational and Lacanian Schools of Psychoanalysis: A Conversation With Adrienne Harris and David Lichtenstein, Moderated by Chris Christian

Abstract

Relational psychoanalysis is a relatively new but increasingly present school in contemporary psychoanalysis. Lacanian psychoanalysis is a dominant presence in France and South America but far less so in the English-speaking clinical world. And there is little contact between them. Adrienne Harris, one of the founders of relational psychoanalysis, and David Lichtenstein, a prominent New York-based Lacanian-influenced psychoanalyst, came together in the spring of 2012 for a rare conversation about the differences, similarities, and potential meeting points between these two psychoanalytic movements. The conversation spanned a wide psychoanalytic landscape from the origins and influences of these two movements to their conceptualization of basic psychoanalytic notions such as the unconscious, the self, the process and purpose of the psychoanalytic project, the nature of trauma, the work of interpretation, and the role of the analytic relationship. Ferenczi, Winnicott, and Bromberg offered common theoretical ground for this comparative conversation.

Notes

¹ The full quote is this: “Hate is expressed by the existence of the end of the hour” (Winnicott, 1949, p. 196).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adrienne Harris

Adrienne Harris, Ph.D., is Faculty and Supervisor at New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She is on the faculty and is a supervisor at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. She is an Editor at Psychoanalytic Dialogues and Studies in Gender and Sexuality. In 2009, she, Lewis Aron, and Jeremy Safron established the Sandor Ferenczi Center at the New School University.

David Lichtenstein

David Lichtenstein, Ph.D., is Co-Founder, Faculty, and Supervisor Apres-Coup Psychoanalytic Association; Editor, DIVISION/Review: A Quarterly Psychoanalytic Forum; Adjunct Professor of Psychology, CUNY Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, New School University; and a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York.

Chris Christian

Chris Christian, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor, New School for Social Research, and Member, Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association and Psychoanalytic Psychology.