Coparticipant Psychoanalysis: Toward a New Theory of Clinical Inquiry

by John Fiscalini

Overview

Traditionally, two clinical models have been dominant in psychoanalysis: the classical paradigm, which views the analyst as an objective mirror, and the participant-observation paradigm, which views the analyst as an intersubjective participant-observer. According to John Fiscalini, an evolutionary shift in psychoanalytic consciousness has been taking place, giving rise to coparticipant inquiry, a third paradigm that represents a dramatic shift in analytic clinical theory and that has profound clinical implications.

Coparticipant inquiry integrates the individualistic focus of the classical tradition and the social focus of the participant-observer perspective. It is marked by a radical emphasis on analysts' and patients' analytic equality, emotional reciprocity, psychic symmetry, and relational mutuality. Unlike the previous two paradigms, coparticipant inquiry suggests that we are all inherently communal beings and, yet, are simultaneously innately self-fulfilling, unique individuals. The book looks closely at the therapeutic dialectics of the personal and interpersonal selves and discusses narcissism—the perversion of the self—within its clinical role as the neurosis that contextualizes all other neuroses. Thus the goal of this book is to define coparticipant inquiry; articulate its major principles; analyze its implications for a theory of the self and the treatment of narcissism; and discuss the therapeutic potential of the coparticipant field and the coparticipant nature of transference, resistance, therapeutic action, and analytic vitality. Fiscalini explores "analytic space," which marks the psychic limit of coparticipant activity; the "living through process," which, he suggests, subtends all analytic change; and "openness to singularity," which is essential to analytic vitality.

Coparticipant Psychoanalysis brings crucial insights to clinical theory and practice and is an invaluable resource for psychoanalysts and therapists, as well as students and practitioners of psychology, psychiatry, and social work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231132633
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Fiscalini is a training and supervising analyst and faculty member at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology; director of clinical training at the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis; and an associate clinical professor at the New York University postdoctoral program in psychoanalysis. He is the coeditor of Narcissism and the Interpersonal Self and a coeditor of The Handbook of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis.
John Fiscalini is a training and supervising analyst and faculty member at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology; director of clinical training at the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis; and an associate clinical professor at the New York University postdoctoral program in psychoanalysis. He is the coeditor of Narcissism and the Interpersonal Self (Columbia, 1993) and a coeditor of The Handbook of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis (Analytic Press, 1995). He is a practicing psychoanalyst in New York City.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Coparticipation
Coparticipation and Coparticipant Inquiry
The Core Principles of Coparticipant Inquiry
The Evolution of Coparticipant Inquiry in Psychoanalysis: A Comparative Study
The Self
The Multidimensional Self
Clinical Dialectics of the Self
Narcissism
The Self and Narcissism
Clinical Narcissism: Psychopathology of the Self
Coparticipant Inquiry and Narcissism
The Analytic Working Space
Narcissistic Dynamics and Coparticipant Therapeutics: Further Considerations
Explorations in Therapy
Openness to Singularity: The Facilitation of Aliveness in Analysis
Coparticipant Transference Analysis: Observations and Conjectures
The "Living Through" Process: The Experiential and Relational Foundations of Therapeutic Action

What People are Saying About This

Roger Frie

Coparticipant Psychoanalysis is a major contribution to the field of psychoanalytic thinking and practice and commands our attention. At a time when much of psychoanalysis is entrenched in the dichotomy of drive and relational models, John Fiscalini elaborates an emerging third paradigm: coparticipant inquiry. Fiscalini's original and creative voice deepens our understanding of the interpersonal analytic process by articulating the role of the personal self and agency in the clinical setting. In weaving together a rich array of clinical experience with lucid theoretical perspectives on the self, Fiscalini provides an exciting and timely alternative to the reductionisms present in much classical and postmodernist psychoanalysis. This book is indispensable for anyone interested in understanding the necessary evolution of psychoanalytic thinking and practice and for all who wish to appreciate the complex nature of personal and interpersonal experience.

— Roger Frie, Ph.D., Psy.D., editor, Understanding Experience: Psychotherapy and Postmodernism

Irwin Hirsch

In this well written and scholarly book, John Fiscalini extends interpersonal and relational theories of therapeutic action. Built on the seminal work of his mentor, Benjamin Wolstein, Fiscalini elaborates a most original way of conceptualizing psychoanalytic interaction, subtly navigating some of the shortcomings of more traditional explications of praxis. His coparticipant psychoanalytic model privileges the idiosyncratic humanity and the unique individuality of both parties in the analytic dyad. This challenging and exciting book merits wide readership among analysts representing all schools of though and all levels of clinical experience.

— Irwin Hirsch, Ph.D., Distinguished Visiting Faculty, William Alanson White Institute

Anthony Bass

In developing the concept of 'coparticipant inquiry' and placing it in the foreground of this scholarly, lively, and extremely readable new work, Fiscalini achieves a remarkable synthesis of a wide range of ideas and values that contribute to the emerging paradigm that is radically altering the landscape of contemporary psychoanalytic practice. Tracing the historical roots, theoretical underpinnings and cutting-edge therapeutic implications of an approach to analytic therapy that emphasizes analytic egalitarianism, emotional reciprocity, relational mutuality, and psychic symmetry, Fiscalini's creative integration of these trends and his elaboration of an original theory of clinical inquiry informed by them makes an important contribution to the field of contemporary psychoanalysis and related therapies. It is a book that should not be missed by practitioners or students of the contemporary psychoanalytic scene.

— Anthony Bass, Ph.D., executive editor, Psychoanalytic Dialogues: A Journal of Relational Perspectives