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Relational and intersubjective developments · Chapter 33
Greenberg and Mitchell: how the relational turn reorganized an existing conversation
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Chapter contents
- Not the discovery that relationships matter
- A relational matrix is not just a relationship history
- Repetition can preserve a familiar self
- An original room today: change threatens belonging
- Greenberg did not simply remain Mitchell’s coauthor
- Why one-person and two-person language can mislead
- Source and reading notes
Not the discovery that relationships matter
By the time Jay Greenberg and Stephen Mitchell published Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory in 1983, Fairbairn, Sullivan, Winnicott, Loewald and many others had already made relationships central in different ways. The book’s importance was comparative: it mapped theoretical tensions between drive-oriented and relational accounts and made previously separated traditions available for a new synthesis. Mitchell’s later writing developed relational psychoanalysis as a positive framework, not merely a criticism of classical technique. [231] [103]
In plain English: the change was not “old analysts ignored people.” It was a reorganization of the question of what motivates us, how experience is formed, and what the therapist is part of.
Mitchell’s work also became influential through teaching, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, and collaborative anthologies with Lewis Aron. With Margaret Black, he wrote a historical introduction that helped trainees understand differences among schools. Such editorial and pedagogical work matters: a field changes when people begin reading across institutional boundaries rather than only adding another doctrine. [104] [192]
A relational matrix is not just a relationship history
In a relational account, patterns of self and other organize experience, desire, defense and expectation. The person is not born fully formed and later placed into relationships. Yet a relational view need not deny biology, sexuality, aggression or an inner world. It asks how these become psychologically meaningful within relational contexts. Mitchell’s later work engages attachment and intersubjectivity without reducing all motivation to attachment security. [103]
In plain English: what I want can be shaped by the kinds of relationships in which wanting has become possible. Changing a relationship can therefore change what I can imagine wanting, not only whether I get an existing wish satisfied.
This idea differs from a simple account in which an early event programs a later repetition. The present relationship can create new possibilities, but it can also sustain old arrangements. The therapist is one participant in that process, with responsibilities that are not symmetrical with the patient’s.
Repetition can preserve a familiar self
A repeated relationship may hurt yet sustain a recognizable identity. If Mara is always the undemanding one, asking clearly does not merely risk a refusal. It may threaten the way she knows herself as lovable. A new relational experience can consequently evoke anxiety as well as relief. Mitchell’s attention to the balance between familiar organization and new experience helps explain why insight need not dissolve repetition. [103] [104]
The clinician should not assume that any refusal to change demonstrates a deep loyalty to suffering. A current environment may genuinely punish new behavior. The formulation includes both the person’s investment in a familiar arrangement and the actual opportunities available.
An original room today: change threatens belonging
Mara says she finally asked Nadia to reschedule dinner. Nadia agreed. Instead of feeling triumphant, Mara felt strangely disloyal and avoided the next message.
Therapist: “The request went better than you expected, but something about making it still felt wrong.”
Mara: “I felt like I was becoming one of those people who always wants something.”
Therapist: “So this is not only about whether Nadia will agree. It changes who you feel you are in the friendship.”
Mara: “And who I am here. You will expect me to keep doing it now.”
The clinician recognizes the risk of becoming a new authority who demands assertiveness. They explore how wanting, goodness and performance are linked, including in the therapy. At the same time, the therapist does not withdraw all direction. They can say why making wishes more available may matter while allowing Mara to question the formulation.
This is not a claim that relational therapy consists of endlessly discussing the therapist. The outside relationship supplies essential facts and opportunities. The therapeutic exchange can reveal an additional version of the dilemma.
Greenberg did not simply remain Mitchell’s coauthor
Greenberg’s later work develops his own account of the analyst’s participation and the patient’s experience of agency. In “Conversations with Oedipus,” he asks how clinical thinking can attend to shifts between acting and being acted upon, rather than interpret only the patient’s activity and wishes. A history that reduces him to half of an influential book misses the continuing differences within relational psychoanalysis. The same is true of Aron, Benjamin, Bromberg, Stern, Hoffman and others: a family resemblance does not erase different theories of mind and action. [232][303] [11]
Why one-person and two-person language can mislead
A one-person emphasis investigates an individual’s organization; a two-person emphasis investigates mutual influence in the analytic situation. In actual practice, both kinds of question can be necessary. Using the labels as a moral ranking makes older traditions into caricatures and can make relational clinicians overlook their own authority. The fact that an analyst participates does not settle how much to disclose or when to interpret. [11]
Study task: explain why a successful outside interaction might still be difficult to integrate. Then compare three possibilities: anxiety about the actual other person, anxiety about a changed self, and anxiety about pleasing the therapist. Identify evidence that would distinguish them.
Source and reading notes
Independent educational synthesis. Fictional conversations illustrate reasoning. Review scopes describe the material consulted; they do not certify all clinical claims.
Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory (opens in a new tab)
Review scope recorded
See the pathway review note for the exact material consulted.
Harvard destination did not expose readable book text. Identity is corroborated by Gabbard’s 2001 journal introduction (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00030651010490020501) and the publisher-distributed ebook description. Detailed chapters were not read.
Recorded check: 2026-10-16. Source used for this record (opens in a new tab)
Pathway source review: checked at stated scope
bibliographic-cross-reference: Harvard destination did not expose readable book text. Identity is corroborated by Gabbard’s 2001 journal introduction (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00030651010490020501) and the publisher-distributed ebook description. Detailed chapters were not read.
checked at stated scope · Recorded date: 2026-10-16
Scope concerns what was consulted; it is not approval of every claim or author endorsement.
Further reading for psychodynamic history, theory and practice.
Access depends on the destination; saving a link does not unlock paid material.
Relationality: From Attachment to Intersubjectivity (opens in a new tab)
Review scope recorded
See the pathway review note for the exact material consulted.
Publisher identifies Loewald, Fairbairn, Bowlby and Sullivan as roots. Full book not read.
Recorded check: 2026-10-15. Source used for this record (opens in a new tab)
Pathway source review: carried forward
publisher-description: Publisher identifies Loewald, Fairbairn, Bowlby and Sullivan as roots. Full book not read.
carried-forward; not independently rechecked in finishing pass · Recorded date: 2026-10-15
Scope concerns what was consulted; it is not approval of every claim or author endorsement.
Further reading for psychodynamic history, theory and practice.
Access depends on the destination; saving a link does not unlock paid material.
Relational Psychoanalysis, Volume 1: The Emergence of a Tradition (opens in a new tab)
Review scope recorded
See the pathway review note for the exact material consulted.
Primary-essay anthology reading route; not a claim all essays have been independently appraised.
Recorded check: 2026-10-15. Source used for this record (opens in a new tab)
Pathway source review: carried forward
publisher-description-and-contents: Primary-essay anthology reading route; not a claim all essays have been independently appraised.
carried-forward; not independently rechecked in finishing pass · Recorded date: 2026-10-15
Scope concerns what was consulted; it is not approval of every claim or author endorsement.
Further reading for psychodynamic history, theory and practice.
Access depends on the destination; saving a link does not unlock paid material.
Freud and Beyond: A History of Modern Psychoanalytic Thought (opens in a new tab)
Review scope recorded
See the pathway review note for the exact material consulted.
Publisher description of revised edition checked. A scholarly historical synthesis, not a primary record of each episode it narrates. Original edition 1995.
Recorded check: 2026-10-16. Source used for this record (opens in a new tab)
Pathway source review: checked at stated scope
publisher-description-and-contents: Publisher description of revised edition checked. A scholarly historical synthesis, not a primary record of each episode it narrates. Original edition 1995.
checked at stated scope · Recorded date: 2026-10-16
Scope concerns what was consulted; it is not approval of every claim or author endorsement.
Further reading for psychodynamic history, theory and practice.
Access depends on the destination; saving a link does not unlock paid material.
The Analyst’s Participation: A New Look (opens in a new tab)
Abstract checked
Abstract or official summary reviewed. Full paper not appraised.
Primary author abstract read: criticizes uniform technique and the tendency for relational vignettes to emphasize personal risk-taking. Supports participation discussion, not every claim about Oedipus and Beyond.
Recorded check: 2026-10-16. Source used for this record (opens in a new tab)
Pathway source review: checked at stated scope
abstract: Primary author abstract read: criticizes uniform technique and the tendency for relational vignettes to emphasize personal risk-taking. Supports participation discussion, not every claim about Oedipus and Beyond.
checked at stated scope · Recorded date: 2026-10-16
Scope concerns what was consulted; it is not approval of every claim or author endorsement.
Further reading for psychodynamic history, theory and practice.
Access depends on the destination; saving a link does not unlock paid material.
Conversations with Oedipus (opens in a new tab)
Abstract checked
Abstract or official summary reviewed. Full paper not appraised.
Primary authored article abstract and identity checked. Agency, being an object of others, and activity/passivity; full text not appraised. Supplements rather than misidentifies Oedipus and Beyond.
Recorded check: 2026-10-16. Source used for this record (opens in a new tab)
Pathway source review: checked at stated scope
abstract: Primary authored article abstract and identity checked. Agency, being an object of others, and activity/passivity; full text not appraised. Supplements rather than misidentifies Oedipus and Beyond.
checked at stated scope · Recorded date: 2026-10-16
Scope concerns what was consulted; it is not approval of every claim or author endorsement.
Further reading for psychodynamic history, theory and practice.
Access depends on the destination; saving a link does not unlock paid material.
A Meeting of Minds: Mutuality in Psychoanalysis (opens in a new tab)
Publisher contents checked
Publisher description and table of contents reviewed. Chapters were not read.
Publisher description and contents checked. Listing is a later edition; do not infer original publication date from its copyright field.
Recorded check: 2026-10-15. Source used for this record (opens in a new tab)
Pathway source review: carried forward
contents: Publisher description and contents checked. Listing is a later edition; do not infer original publication date from its copyright field.
carried-forward; not independently rechecked in finishing pass · Recorded date: 2026-10-15
Scope concerns what was consulted; it is not approval of every claim or author endorsement.
Further reading for psychodynamic history, theory and practice.
Access depends on the destination; saving a link does not unlock paid material.