Principles of coparticipant inquiry: An introductory outline and implications for therapeutic action

Abstract

Historically, two paradigms have been dominant in clinical psychoanalysis: the classical paradigm, which views the impersonal analyst as objective mirror, and the interpersonal/relational model, which views the analyst as intersubjective participant-observer. An evolutionary shift in psychoanalytic consciousness has, however, been quietly taking place, giving rise to coparticipant inquiry, a third paradigm that integrates the individualistic emphasis of classical theory and the social focus of participant-observation, avoiding the reductionism of each. This new perspective, which is rooted in the radical teachings and clinical experiments of Sandor Ferenczi, represents a significant shift in analytic theory and has major clinical implications. This essay articulates the seven guiding principles of coparticipant inquiry and reviews its contribution to the psychoanalytic theory of therapeutic action. The curative process of reconstructive new experience in the analytic situation, referred to as the “living through” process, is seen to subtend curative change, for both patient and analyst. The inherent mutuality and bi-directionality of this beneficial “living through” process is examined in both its direct and its dialectic coparticipatory aspects.

Keywords:

• Coparticipation
• inquiry
• therapeutic action
• living through
• paradigm

This paper was presented on a panel on “Mutuality in Psychoanalysis” at the 25th annual Spring meeting of Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association on April 17, 2005 in New York City.

This paper was presented on a panel on “Mutuality in Psychoanalysis” at the 25th annual Spring meeting of Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association on April 17, 2005 in New York City.

Notes

This paper was presented on a panel on “Mutuality in Psychoanalysis” at the 25th annual Spring meeting of Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association on April 17, 2005 in New York City.

¹This concept is discussed in greater detail in Fiscalini (1990), where I divide the self into five significantly different areas of selfic functioning, motivation, and self-threat. These are the sensual, personal, interpersonal, personalized, and relational selves. Each selfic dimension is characterized by specific strivings for specific goals and is subject to specific threats to the self.

²To be accurate, analysts do not cure their patients. They may assist, facilitate, encourage, endorse, or otherwise participate in their patients’ efforts to grow. In this sense, the analyst is much like a psychological midwife.

³In my 1988 paper on the curative action of the living through process, I focused in a unidirectional way on the analyst's providing new experience for the patient. I now see this process as much more bi-directional or mutual than I had previously thought.