Relational Perspectives
About the Book Series
Series Editor: Steven Kuchuck
Founding Editor:
Stephen Mitchell
Editor Emeritus:
Lewis Aron
Former Editors:
Adrienne Harris
Eyal Rozmarin
The Relational Perspectives Book Series (RPBS) publishes books that grow out of or contribute to the relational tradition in contemporary psychoanalysis. Jay Greenberg and Stephen Mitchell first coined the term relational psychoanalysis as a way of identifying a common theme among an otherwise diverse group of theories that had never before been considered connected in any way. Each of these schools—primarily; interpersonal psychoanalysis, British object relations theory, and self-psychology, emphasized a person’s embeddedness in the social context rather than the isolated individual with drives pressing for discharge as the main unit of study (Greenberg & Mitchell, 1983).
Following his work with Greenberg, Mitchell (1988) began using the term relational psychoanalysis to also refer to a newly developing perspective that arose from a melding of British Object Relations theory with Interpersonal psychoanalysis, feminist, queer, gender and other social, philosophical, political, cross-cultural and attachment theories as well as empirical infancy research and elements of contemporary Freudian and Kleinian thought. In more recent years, aspects of Field theory and Intersubjective Systems theory, as well as understanding of oppression, economics, race and other systemic issues have also become integrated into this tradition, which understands relational configurations between self and others, both real and fantasied, as the primary subject of psychoanalytic investigation. This new and expanded perspective is sometimes referred to as "big R" Relational psychoanalysis in order to distinguish it from Mitchell’s original use of the term relational as an umbrella term for already existing theories (Kuchuck, 2021).
Originally, we referred to the Relational tradition, turn, or perspective rather than to a Relational school, to highlight that we were identifying a general trend or tendency within contemporary psychoanalysis, not a more formally organized or coherent system of beliefs. And given the centrality of the concept of analyst as subject and eschewing of positivism in Relational thinking, we recognize that no two Relationalists think or practice in exactly the same way. Still, while debated, Relational psychoanalysis (as differentiated from Greenberg and Mitchell’s initial use of the term), has arrived at a moment in time when some believe we can now rightly think of it as a proper theoretical orientation.
Now under the editorial supervision of Steven Kuchuck, the Relational Perspectives Book Series originated in 1990 through the efforts of the late Stephen A. Mitchell. Mitchell was not only the first, but also the most prolific and influential of the originators of the Relational tradition. Committed to dialogue among psychoanalysts, he abhorred the authoritarianism that dictated adherence to a rigid set of beliefs or technical restrictions. He championed open discussion, comparative and integrative approaches, and promoted new voices across the generations. Mitchell was later joined by the late Lewis Aron, also a visionary and influential writer, teacher and major thinker in Relational psychoanalysis. Leading Relational scholars Adrienne Harris, Steven Kuchuck and Eyal Rozmarin eventually partnered with Aron as series editors.
Included in the Relational Perspectives Book Series are authors that come from within the relational/Relational traditions, those that extend and develop that scholarship, and works that critique these approaches or compare and contrast them with alternative points of view. The series includes our most distinguished senior psychoanalysts, along with younger contributors who bring fresh vision. Our aim is to enable a deepening of thinking about theory and technique while reaching across disciplinary and social boundaries in order to foster an inclusive and international literature.
Works Cited
Greenberg, J.R. and Mitchell, S.A. (1983). Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Kuchuck, S. (2021). The Relational Revolution in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. London: Karnac Books.
Mitchell, S.A. (1988). Relational Concepts in Psychoanalysis: An Integration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Psychoanalysis and Holocaust Testimony: Unwanted Memories of Social Trauma
1st Edition
Edited
By Dori Laub, Andreas Hamburger
April 17, 2017
Psychoanalytic work with socially traumatised patients is an increasingly popular vocation, but remains extremely demanding and little covered in the literature. In Psychoanalysis and Holocaust Testimony, a range of contributors draw upon their own clinical work, and on research findings from work ...
The Discovery of the Self: A Study in Psychological Cure
1st Edition
Edited
By Peter L. Rudnytsky, Elizabeth Severn
March 09, 2017
Elizabeth Severn, known as "R.N." in Sandor Ferenczi’s Clinical Diary, was Ferenczi’s analysand for eight years, the patient with whom he conducted his controversial experiment in mutual analysis, and a psychoanalyst in her own right who had a transformative influence on his work. The Discovery of ...
The Neuropsychodynamic Treatment of Self-Deficits: Searching for Complementarity
1st Edition
By Joseph Palombo
January 06, 2017
The Neuropsychodynamic Treatment of Self-Deficits examines how to work psychoanalytically with patients to address the problems that result from neuropsychological impairments, exploring the latest advances in understanding and treatment, while also addressing the concerns that clinicians may have ...
Body-Mind Dissociation in Psychoanalysis: Development after Bion
1st Edition
By Riccardo Lombardi
December 13, 2016
The conflict and dissociation between the Body and the Mind have determinant implications in the context of our current clinical practice, and are an important source of internal and relational disturbances. Body-Mind Dissociation in Psychoanalysis proposes the concept as a new hypothesis, ...
Trans-generational Trauma and the Other: Dialogues across history and difference
1st Edition
Edited
By Sue Grand, Jill Salberg
December 13, 2016
Often, our trans-generational legacies are stories of 'us' and 'them' that never reach their terminus. We carry fixed narratives, and the ghosts of our perpetrators and of our victims. We long to be subjects in our own history, but keep reconstituting the Other as an object in their own history. ...
Wounds of History: Repair and Resilience in the Trans-Generational Transmission of Trauma
1st Edition
Edited
By Jill Salberg, Sue Grand
December 13, 2016
Wounds of History takes a new view in psychoanalysis using a trans-generational and social/political/cultural model looking at trauma and its transmission. The view is radical in looking beyond maternal dyads and Oedipal triangles and in its portrayal of a multi-generational world that is no longer...
Psychoanalysis, Trauma, and Community: History and Contemporary Reappraisals
1st Edition
Edited
By Judith L. Alpert, Elizabeth R. Goren
November 15, 2016
Trauma is one of the hottest contemporary topics within psychoanalysis, whilst many psychoanalysts are increasingly interested in applying their skills outside the traditional setting of the consulting room, especially in response to disasters, wars and serious social issues. Psychoanalysis, Trauma...
Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Modern Jewish Philosophy: Two Languages of Love
1st Edition
By Michael Oppenheim
October 18, 2016
Relational psychoanalysis and modern Jewish philosophy have much to say about the dynamics of human relationships, but there has been no detailed, thorough, and constructive examination that brings together these two incisive discourses. Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Modern Jewish Philosophy: Two...
Talking about Evil: Psychoanalytic, Social, and Cultural Perspectives
1st Edition
Edited
By Rina Lazar
September 29, 2016
How can we talk about evil? How can we make sense of its presence all around us? How can we come to terms with the sad fact that our involvement in doing or enabling evil is an interminable aspect of our lives in the world? This book is an attempt to engage these questions in a new way. Written ...
Demons in the Consulting Room: Echoes of Genocide, Slavery and Extreme Trauma in Psychoanalytic Practice
1st Edition
Edited
By Adrienne Harris, Margery Kalb, Susan Klebanoff
August 18, 2016
Demons in the Consulting Room: Echoes of Genocide, Slavery and Extreme Trauma in Psychoanalytic Practice isthe second of two volumes addressing the overwhelming, often unmetabolizable feelings related to mourning, both on an individual and mass scale. Authors in this volume explore the potency of ...
The Ethical Turn: Otherness and Subjectivity in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
1st Edition
Edited
By David Goodman, Eric R. Severson
June 20, 2016
Levinas (1969) claims that "morality is not a branch of philosophy, but first philosophy" and if he is right about this, might ethics also serve as a first psychology? This possibility is explored by the authors in this volume who seek to bring the "ethical turn" into the world of psychoanalysis. ...
Ghosts in the Consulting Room: Echoes of Trauma in Psychoanalysis
1st Edition
Edited
By Adrienne Harris, Margery Kalb, Susan Klebanoff
May 02, 2016
Ghosts in the Consulting Room: Echoes of Trauma in Psychoanalysis is the first of two volumes that delves into the overwhelming, often unmetabolizable feelings related to mourning. The book uses clinical examples of people living in a state of liminality or ongoing melancholia. The authors reflect ...