IARRP-Australia presented a seminar with Jessica Benjamin (USA) in November. Appearing by video link, Dr. Benjamin took as her topic “Paradox and Play in Psychoanalysis: From Enactment to ‘Thirdness.’”

Dr. Benjamin’s recognition theory stresses an analytic posture whose aim is to create a space for two minds. Dr. Benjamin explained how the move from enactment around “doer and done to” dynamics to play, with its “both/and” structure, moves out of complementarity into “thirdness,” a developmental achievement which has a trajectory beginning from the early mutual gazing of the infant to later conflicts around recognition. The development of thirdness grows out of the attachment responses between mother and infant, or between analyst and patient. In this movement, Dr. Benjamin argued, the ability to accept and sustain paradox plays a great role. The essential paradox of play, she noted, is that it is both real and unreal.