Agency, surrender, and grace in psychoanalysis

Datos Bibliográficos

ID19421237
AutoresJeremy D Safran (New School, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen33
Número1
Páginas58-72
Fecha de publicación2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPsychoanalytic Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0736-9735 • E-ISSN: 1939-1331
EditorialAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/a0038020
OpenAlexW2611876386
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas14

There is a vital dialectic between agency and surrender in life and in the analytic process. Without an ability to will, one cannot choose one’s actions; one becomes a passive victim of circumstances rather than an agent who can influence one’s own destiny. On the other hand, an exaggerated sense of agency fails to take into account the limits of our ability to control life, and is associated with a type of narcissistic omnipotence that can be linked with an experience of isolation. In this article I explore some of the subtleties of the interplay between willing and surrendering in the analytic process. I also examine the way in which an inability to surrender can impede the patient’s ability to take in what the analyst has to offer. And finally I adapt the concept of grace from theological discourse to highlight a dimension of the analytic process that involves an emergence of the patient’s capacity to make constructive use of the analyst’s interventions

Political science · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Social science · Sociology · Surrender · Law · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy