Discussion of “Three Dimensional Field Theory”

Abstract

Ringstrom addresses major changes in a number of paradigms that have been occurring over the past 50 to 70 years within the larger scientific/philosophical community and, more specifically, within psychoanalysis. His overall purpose is to further delineate and integrate these paradigmatic changes and their theoretical and clinical implications for understanding psychoanalytic change. In his title, “Three Dimensional Field Theory: Dramatization and Improvisation in a Psychoanalytic Theory of Change,” Ringstrom a third “spatial” dimension to relational field theory that makes it more than a metaphor. Dramatization and improvisation does not just refer to a technical approach but, more important, provides a framework by which he understands effective therapeutic interaction. This discussant attempts to evaluate several of the paradigm shifts, namely, the informational revolution and dramatization and improvisation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James L. Fosshage

James L. Fosshage, Ph.D., is Cofounder, Board Director, and Faculty Member of the National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NYC); Founding Faculty Member, Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity (NYC); and Clinical Professor of Psychology of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (Cofounder of the Relational Track). He is the author of more than 130 psychoanalytic publications, including nine books; his latest book, coedited with Joseph Lichtenberg and Frank Lachmann, is entitled Narrative and Meaning (2017). His website is www.jamesfosshage.net.