Current Conceptions of the Analytic Field:
Bionian Field Theory and Interpersonal/Relational Psychoanalysis.
The idea of the analytic field lies at the heart of contemporary Interpersonal and Relational psychoanalysis, on the one hand, and Bionian field theory, on the other. How is the idea of the field used in these two schools? Does their joint use of this key word signify a similarity in their approach to clinical psychoanalysis? How do they use the concept of the field differently? Dr. Stern will review both approaches, with clinical examples.
Relational Freedom: Sensing and Relaxing the Interpersonal Field.
This presentation offers Dr. Stern’s specifically Interpersonal/Relational approach to the field. The field facilitates some formulations of experience and prevents others. Whatever we can do to make it possible for the analytic relationship, and thus the field, to evolve freely, without constraint or constriction, is the best way we have to encourage the freedom to experience. What Dr. Stern calls “relational freedom” underpins therapeutic action. A long case vignette illustrates these ideas.