Influence and Autonomy in Psychoanalysis

Stephen A. Mitchell has been at the forefront of the broad paradigmatic shift in contemporary psychoanalysis from the traditional one-person model to a two-person, interactive, relational perspective.  In Influence and Autonomy in Psychoanalysis,  Mitchell provides a critical, comparative framework for exploring the broad array  of concepts newly developed for understanding interactive processes between analysand and analyst.  Drawing on the broad traditions of Kleinian theory and interpersonal psychoanalysis, as well as object relations and progressive Freudian thought, he considers in depth the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis, anachronistic ideals like anonymity and neutrality, the…