English
Adjective
- Involving or occurring between separate conscious minds.
- Accessible to or capable of being established for two or more subjects.
User Contributed Dictionary
Related terms
Extensive Definition
Intersubjectivity is something which is shared by
two or more subjects.
Definition
Intersubjectivity is "The sharing of subjective states by two or more individuals." (Scheff 2006)The term is used in three ways.
- Firstly, in its weakest sense it is used to refer to agreement. There is said to be intersubjectivity between people if they agree on a given set of meanings or definition of the situation.
- Secondly, and somewhat more subtly it has been used to refer to the "common-sense," shared meanings constructed by people in their interactions with each other and used as an everyday resource to interpret the meaning of elements of social and cultural life. If people share common sense, then they share a definition of the situationhttp://www.brunel.ac.uk/~hsstcfs/glossary.htm.
- Thirdly, the term has been used to refer to shared (or partially shared) divergences of meaning. Self-presentation, lying, practical jokes, and social emotions, for example, all entail not a shared definition of the situation, but partially shared divergences of meaning. Someone who is telling a lie is engaged in an intersubjective act because they are working with two different definitions of the situation. Lying is thus genuinely inter-subjective (in the sense of operating between two subjective definitions of reality).
Intersubjectivity emphasizes that shared
cognition and consensus is essential in the shaping of our ideas
and relations. Language is viewed as communal rather than private.
Hence it is problematic to view the individual as partaking in a
private world, which is once and for all defined.
Intersubjectivity is today an important concept
in modern schools of psychotherapy, where it
has found application to the theory of the interrelations between
analyst and analysand.
Intersubjectivity in psychoanalysis
Among the early authors who use in psychoanalysis this conception, in explicit or implicit way, we can mention , Heinz Kohut, Robert Stolorow, George E. Atwood, Jessica Benjamin in United States and Silvia Montefoschi in Italy. Adopting an intersubjective perspective in psychoanalysis means, above all, to give up what Robert D. Stolorow defines “the myth of isolate mind”.In the last 20 years a new direction in
psychoanalysis often referred to as relational psychoanalysis or
just relational theory has developed. A central person is Daniel
Stern . Empirically, the intersubjective school is inspired by
research on infants non-verbal communication . A main issue is how
central relational issues is communicated at a very fast pace in a
non-verbal fashion. They also stress the importance of real
relationships with two eualent partners. The journal Psychoanalytic
Dialogues is devoted to relational psychoanalysis.
References
Further reading
Books
Intersubjectivity in psychoanalysis
- Laplanche, J. & Pontalis, J. B. (1974). The Language of Psycho-Analysis, Edited by W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0-393-01105-4
Intersubjectivity and philosophy
- Edmund Husserl Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität. Texte aus dem Nachlass 1905-1920
- Edmund Husserl Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität. Texte aus dem Nachlass 1921-1928
- Edmund Husserl ''Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität. Texte aus dem Nachlass 1929-1935
Online papers about intersubjectivity theory in psychoanalysis
- Benjamin, J. (1995). Recognition and destruction: An outline of intersubjectivity
- Stolorow R. and Atwood G. (1992) "The myth of isolate mind” in "Contexts of Being: The Intersubjective Foundations of Psychological Life"
Intersubjectivity and philosophy:
Intersubjectivity in psychoanalysis:
Source
- Beebe, B. and Lackhmann, F. (2002): "Infant Research and Adult Treatment. Co-constructing Interactions". The Analytic Press.
- Scheff, Thomas et al. (2006). Goffman Unbound!: A New Paradigm for Social Science (The Sociological Imagination), Paradigm Publishers (ISBN 978-1594511967).
- Stern, D. (2004): "The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life". Norton Books.
External links
- Critique of intersubjectivity Article by Mats Winther
intersubjective in German:
Intersubjektivität
intersubjective in Spanish:
intersubjetividad
intersubjective in Italian:
Intersoggettività
intersubjective in Dutch:
Intersubjectiviteit
intersubjective in Swedish:
Intersubjektivitet