A Mutual Appreciation of Differences: My Conversation with Philip M. Bromberg

Abstract

Concepts from emerging relational/intersubjective perspectives elaborate a definition, understanding, and clinical approach to dissociation consistent with their paradigms. They cast new light upon dissociation as a long underappreciated and often overlooked (primarily characterological) defense. While some embrace the extension of these ideas into work with the formal dissociative disorders, others think that that this development risked conveying both an incomplete picture of dissociation as a defense and contributing to a potential misunderstanding of these conditions and their treatment. This report summarizes conversation between the late Philip M. Bromberg and the author of this paper as they worked to clarify and reconcile their divergent perspectives on several relevant issues.

Keywords:

• Philip Bromberg
• defense mechanisms
• dissociation
• dissociative identity disorder
• hypnoid
• hypnosis

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard P. Kluft

Richard P. Kluft, M.D., Ph.D., practices psychiatry and psychoanalysis in Bala Cynwyd, PA. He is on the faculty of the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia and the China America Psychoanalytic Alliance; and is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. His major areas of clinical and research interest are dissociation, the dissociative disorders, hypnosis, trauma and memory for traumatic experiences, psychoanalytic aspects of the treatment of the traumatized, and the psychoanalysis/hypnosis interface (both historically and in the clinical setting). In addition to his over 275 professional publications, he authors a series of mystery/ thrillers (Good Shrink/Bad Shrink, An Obituary to Die For, Sinister Subtraction), and the occasional folkloric novella (How Fievel Stole the Moon: A Tale for Sweet Children and Sour Scholars).