On the concept of intersubjectivity in psychoanalysis

Journal title PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE
Author/s Giuseppe Civitarese
Publishing Year 2023 Issue 2023/3 Language Italian
Pages 24 P. 375-398 File size 146 KB
DOI 10.3280/PU2023-003002
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Contemporary psychoanalysis lacks a clear and distinct definition of intersubjectivity. For the most part, the term is used in reference to relational models and the exchanges that take place between two separate subjects. It then serves to indicate the deep involvement of the analyst in the process of the cure. The author argues that this usage, roughly as a synonym for interaction or interpersonal, is trivial and not true to its meaning in Husserl’s philosophy. The German phi- losopher was the first to speak of intersubjectivity in order to explain that if the subject has access to the other and vice versa, it is because on the ontological level a dimension of mutual co-being and co-implication (a common transcendental field) already always exists. If, then, we wish to formulate a clear and distinct, but above all specific, definition of intersubjectivity, we must re- cover this intuition and translate it into coherent principles of technique. On the basis of these two simple rules, fidelity to the original speculative meaning of the concept and its translation into technical tools, it becomes possible to differentiate the various models of psychoanalysis.

Keywords: Intersubjectivity; Husserl; Merleau-Ponty; Analytic field; Bion; Enactment]

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Giuseppe Civitarese, Sul concetto di intersoggettività in psicoanalisi in "PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE" 3/2023, pp 375-398, DOI: 10.3280/PU2023-003002