The Interpersonal Roots of Relational Thinking

Abstract

Though the relatively new psychoanalytic designation called “relational” covers a wider range of thinking than the much older term, “interpersonal,” the two traditions overlap considerably. Despite some relational thought that is, indeed, quite incompatible with the interpersonal, much of what is identified as relational is distinctly in harmony with interpersonal theorizing. The author views the interpersonal tradition as the single greatest contributing force, and the primary progenitor to what is identified as relational writing.