Playing with reality

IV. A theory of external reality rooted in intersubjectivity

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8971230
AutoresP Fonagy (0000-0003-0229-0091, University College London, autor de correspondencia), Mary Target (University College London)
Año2007
Volumen88
Número4
Páginas917-937
Fecha de publicación2007-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1516/ijpa.2007.917
PMID17681900
OpenAlexW2069699605
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas15
Referencias citadas35

The authors explore the interpersonal aspects of the early development of an experience of external reality and the roots of this experience in primary intersubjectivity. They suggest some implications that this has for psychoanalytic work with the patient's experience of external reality. They argue that the external world is not an independently existing 'given', for the infant to discover, as is sometimes implicitly assumed. Infants acquire knowledge about the world not just through their own explorations of it but by using other minds as teachers. The experience of external reality is invariably shaped through subjectivities. The authors argue that at first the infant assumes that his knowledge is knowledge held by all, that what he knows is known by others and that what is known by others is accessible to him. Only slowly does the uniqueness of his own perspective differentiate so that a sense of mental self can develop. In clinical work we frequently observe the undoing of this process of differentiation, and understanding the underlying mechanisms can be helpful in managing the transference and countertransference consequences when the process has been derailed

Cognition · Epistemology · Intersubjectivity · Psychoanalysis · Reality testing · Child and Animal Learning Development · Cultural Differences and Values · Neuroscience · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Representations and Identity