Miguel Angel Gonzalez Torres, MD

Department of Neuroscience, The University of the Basque Country, Spain
Psychiatry Department, Basurto University Hospital, Bilbao, Spain
Centro Psicoanalítico de Madrid, Spain

Abstract:

A THIRD WAY AHEAD FOR PSYCHOANALYSIS

Today, there are two ways of conceiving psychoanalysis, a classical one focused on the search for truth within the internal world of the patient, and a contemporary one perceiving the patient–therapist relationship as the axis of exploration. Rorty’s criterion, which divides disciplines into either truth-based or solidarity-based, may be applied to this dichotomy. These conflicting positions come from two different historical periods: the Enlightenment and the contemporary world. They inhabit a sterile environment without theoretical discussion or comparison. Possibly, these elements of truth and solidarity, initially designed as complementary, integrative, and nonconflicting, can be found in the work of some psychoanalysts specifically in Otto Kernberg’s proposals. Kernberg makes a creative integration of object relations theory, especially in its Kleinian approach, and ego psychology. In addition, Kernberg’s consideration of affects as key elements of the human’s internal world reflects a third psychoanalytical “way,” exposing the centrality of relational experiences from the earliest stages of life, alongside constitutional drive forces that link us to our biological make-up and determine much of our inner world and behaviour.