An Introduction

I began this blog during my training in interpersonal psychoanalysis at the William Alanson White Institute, recording my reflections on the reading I was doing. It has since evolved into a wide-ranging exploration of psychoanalysis and its philosophical foundations.

My background is in the history of philosophy — particularly Hegel and Frankfurt School critical theory — and there are compelling connections between these figures and the tradition of interpersonal analysis. The first is an elective affinity: many of the themes and preoccupations most characteristic of interpersonal analysis received early, systematic attention from Hegel, who among philosophers is now appreciated as the quintessential thinker of “recognition,” “intersubjectivity,” and “sociality” more generally. The second connection is more direct: Erich Fromm, one of the best-known Frankfurt School thinkers, was a founder of the William Alanson White Institute — home of interpersonal psychoanalysis. In light of this association, it is unsurprising to find this tradition echoing the Frankfurt School idea that an irrational or “sick” culture undermines the psychological needs of its members.