The Development of Intersubjectivity in Relation to Psychotherapy and its Importance for Pre-Therapy / Die Entwicklung der Intersubjektivität in Bezug auf Psychotherapie und ihre Bedeutung für die Prätherapie / El Desarrollo de la intersubjetividad en relación a la psicoterapia y su importancia para la pre terapia / Le développement de l'inter-subjectivité par rapport à la psychothérapie, et son importance pour

Abstract

The goal of this article is to demonstrate the importance of intersubjectivity in relation to psychotherapy, especially to the application of Pre-Therapy. The article shows that intersubjectivity, and imitation as a particular kind of intersubjectivity, is an innate capacity, the development of which starts in the first hours of life by mutual imitation between mother and child. The mutual imitation of the mother and the neonate much resembles the application of pre-therapeutic interventions by the therapist. This leads to the thesis that Pre-Therapy, as promoted by Prouty, can be seen from a developmental frame of reference in which the success of the application of pre-therapeutic reflections, even with severely contact-disturbed adults, proceeds because of the innate potentialities we have since childhood. Research on mirror neurons, as published by Gallese, lays the neurobiological foundation for intersubjective development and is explicitly described.