Dr J Benjamin on intersubjectivity, 3rd-ness & mutual recognition

Jessica Benjamin’s work on intersubjectivity has been pivotal to the field of relational psychoanalysis, as well as social thought. During this workshop, Dr Benjamin will share ideas from her seminal 2018 book Beyond Doer and Done to: Recognition Theory, Intersubjectivity and the Third. A ‘doer/done to’ dynamic is where each person in a dyad, e.g. therapist and client, feels pulled or pushed by the other, rather than their own agent.

This generates a one-way, reactive or complementary process instead of creating an intersubjective ‘Third’ space. ‘Thirdness’ is experienced when both people in a dyad hold a mutual recognition of the other person’s subjectivity and recognise an ongoing, shared, process of reciprocal influence between them.

Across the two sessions, Dr Benjamin will briefly outline her theory of mutual recognition, which tracks the development of the Third in the infant through the caregiver relationship, and the movement between recognition and breakdown in the self-other relationship. She will demonstrate how it parallels the therapeutic relationship.

In the second session, the emphasis will be on the importance of the analyst’s surrender to a breakdown in mutuality during enactments and impasses. This includes the role of using their subjectivity in the process of repairing the co-created relationship, to recover the Third as a transformational space for healing.

There will be time for questions and discussion after each session.

For booking details visit TR Together.

More about Tavistock Relationships: https://tavistockrelationships.org