Relational Psychoanalysis

Relational psychoanalysis, a significant approach among contemporary psychoanalytical schools, emerged as a critique of more traditional or classical psychoanalysis. Relational psychoanalysis developed beyond the predominately intrapsychic model of classical analysis into an approach that included both interpersonal and intersubjective dimensions of human experience. Instead of a single theoretical model, relational psychoanalysis became an umbrella covering a diverse range of perspectives based on a common set of core concepts and clinical strategies. The relational tradition emerged in post-Freudian thought and was first recognized as a movement by Jay Greenberg and Stephen Mitchell. It has subsequently been developed by analysts worldwide.