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Potentiality shrouded: how the newer theories work
The Psychoanalytic Quarterly
|July 1, 1985
Summary
Analysts can enhance patient integration by cultivating empathy, viewing patient actions as inevitable. Incomplete theories that omit potentiality can improve psychoanalytic treatment by increasing perceived configurations and reducing analyst authority.
Area of Science:
- Psychoanalysis
- Psychology
- Philosophy of Mind
Background:
- Analysts often seek to perceive patient integration as pre-existing.
- Empathic attunement can foster a sense of inevitability in patient behaviors.
- Full theories of mind acknowledge possibilities beyond immediate presentation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the utility of incomplete theories in psychoanalytic practice.
- To examine how omitting descriptions of potentiality impacts the analytic process.
- To investigate methods for increasing passively perceived treatment-relevant configurations.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual analysis of psychoanalytic theory and practice.
- Exploration of the role of empathy in analyst perception.
- Consideration of holistic revisions to psychoanalytic frameworks.
Main Results:
- Utilizing incomplete theories can increase the variety of passively perceived configurations.
- Omitting descriptions of potentiality may lessen the analyst's descriptive authority.
- Holistic revisions can shift the focus from analyst interpretation to patient presentation.
Conclusions:
- Incomplete theories offer a valuable alternative perspective in psychoanalysis.
- Reducing analyst descriptive authority can enhance the therapeutic process.
- Embracing potentiality's absence can paradoxically enrich the analytic experience.