Merging and Emerging: A Nonlinear Portrait of Intersubjectivity During Psychotherapy

Abstract

When psychoanalysis is conceived intersubjectively, full engagement between therapist and patient creates an emergent, indivisible whole. The coupled therapist/patient system takes on a life of its own to operate beyond reductive analysis. This paper offers a detailed clinical case in order to illustrate five key principles from the perspective of nonlinear dynamics: (a) A nonlinear relationship exists between diagnosis and treatment, when symptoms shift with treatment and diagnosis emerges out of it; (b) the intersubjective field is a complex web of feedback loops continually operating on multiple time scales and descriptive levels; (c) the coupled therapist/patient system self-organizes implicitly toward the edge of chaos; (d) at the fertile edge of chaos, novelty and greater system complexity emerge spontaneously; and (e) core therapist/patient dynamics are expressed as recursive, fractal pattern.

Acknowledgments

A version of this paper was presented at the UCLA Attachment Conference in Los Angeles in 2008.