Worlds of Experience: Interweaving Philosophical and Clinical Dimensions in Psychoanalysis

Over the course of nearly three decades, our intersubjective

systems perspective has evolved from early studies of the

subjective origins of psychoanalytic theories (Stolorow and

Atwood, 1979) into a phenomenological field theory (Atwood

and Stolorow, 1984) and perspectivalist (Orange, 1995),

contextualist sensibility (Orange, Atwood, and Stolorow,

1997) with rich implications for a broad array of

psychoanalytic clinical questions (Stolorow, Brandchaft, and

Atwood, 1987) and for a radical rethinking of the basic

pillars of psychoanalytic theory (Stolorow and Atwood, 1992).

This book penetrates to the philosophical underpinnings of

both psychoanalytic theory and practice. Our aim here is

twofold: first, to expose and deconstruct the assumptions,

largely a legacy of Descartes’s philosophy, that have

undergirded traditional and much contemporary psychoanalytic

thinking; and second, to lay the foundations for a post-

Cartesian psychoanalytic psychology grounded in

intersubjective contextualism.