Merging and Emerging: A Nonlinear Portrait of Intersubjectivity During Psychotherapy

摘要

When psychoanalysis is conceived intersubjectively, full engagement between therapist and patient creates an emergent, indivisible whole. The coupled therapist/patient system takes on a life of its own to operate beyond reductive analysis. This paper offers a detailed clinical case in order to illustrate five key principles from the perspective of nonlinear dynamics: (a) A nonlinear relationship exists between diagnosis and treatment, when symptoms shift with treatment and diagnosis emerges out of it; (b) the intersubjective field is a complex web of feedback loops continually operating on multiple time scales and descriptive levels; (c) the coupled therapist/patient system self-organizes implicitly toward the edge of chaos; (d) at the fertile edge of chaos, novelty and greater system complexity emerge spontaneously; and (e) core therapist/patient dynamics are expressed as recursive, fractal pattern.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10481885.2011.545333