A reconsideration of objectivity in the analyst

The notion of objectivity has fallen out of favour to some extent, with an increasing emphasis on post-modern trends such as social constructivism, intersubjectivity and perspectivism. In this paper it is argued that the notion of objectivity is still useful in the psychoanalytic domain and that psychoanalysis can and should have a healthy dialectical tension between modern and post-modern themes. The origin of objectivity in the term object is often overlooked. The analyst's position as an object, external to the thinking mind or subjectivity of the patient, offers a vantage-point from which the analyst can share observations that are different from the patient's by virtue of being external to the patient. Indeed, the patient's unconscious intentions are often most accessible through the analyst's careful scrutiny of his or her 'object' responses. Even though the analyst cannot transcend the intersubjectivity of the analytic couple, part of that intersubjectivity involves a perspective outside that of the patient.