Chapter and Presentation Announcement by Irwin Hirsch (USA)
“The Impact of Interpersonal Innovations on Contemporary Psychoanalysis”
In: A. Govrin & J. Mills, Eds. (2020). Innovations in Psychoanalysis: Originality, Development, Progress. London & New York: Routledge, 137-152.
Before neuropsychoanalysis, self-psychology, and contemporary relational theory, the interpersonal tradition set the stage for innovation and progression. Both early and subsequent interpersonal writing has reflected the first and most thorough effort, certainly in the United States, to move away from hegemonic conceptions of an endogenous drive-defense way of explaining the essences of human development, replacing this with a focus on the history of exogenous relationships with others and with culture, and the internalization of these relationships, as a more pragmatic way to understand how each individual develops. Hirsch shows how this innovative perspective further evolved into the view that each unique psychoanalyst also brings his personal idiosyncrasy into his work, and in a parallel way with interpersonal conceptions of human development both subjective co-participants cannot help but exert unconscious influence on one another.
“When Insight Doesn’t Lead to Change.”
In: Between Insight and Change, invited panel, moderated by Theodore Jacobs. American Psychoanalytic Association National Meeting. New York, NY, February 14, 2020.
The aim of this panel is to address a centrally important problem in treatment, one encountered by every analyst and analytic therapist dealing with patients who, despite achieving considerable insight, do not change. Four experienced clinicians representing different viewpoints and perspectives will address this challenging issue. Utilizing clinical examples, they will discuss ways of thinking about and approaching this problem that they have found to be effective.
Irwin Hirsch, PhD
New York, NY
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