Beyond Intersubjectivity: Science, the Real World, and the Third in Psychoanalysis

Abstract

Jessica Benjamin's seminal contribution to the intersubjective turn of contemporary psychoanalysis raises some general issues that are discussed. Is the relational turn owned by psychoanalysis? No, we should recognize important relational findings of other human sciences. Does relational psychoanalysis rely too much on beliefs and confessions? Unfortunately yes, but as a human science it should instead be based on interdisciplinary knowledge. Is psychotherapy only an encounter of patient and therapist? No, besides subjectivity and intersubjectivity there is the objective reality as the “missing” third. Can we get rid of the psychoanalytic attachment to the past? No, there is no patient without his or her biography. Do we have to reconsider our epistemology of radical constructivism? Yes, we should stick to the “weak” constructivism of Winnicott claiming that reality has to be found and invented at the same time. Finally, some remarks on the current crisis of psychoanalysis: the issue is modernization versus fundamentalism.