Friedman's corpus since his anatomy: a psychoanalytic odyssey.

Overview

Lawrence Friedman is a preeminent theorist, critic, and commentator in American psychoanalysis today. The major themes of his work, beginning with his magnum opus, The Anatomy of Psychotherapy (1988), are examined in an effort to identify conceptual shifts and problems in contemporary psychoanalysis. In the years since publication of that work, Friedman's texts have increasingly focused on the epistemological controversies faced by contemporary psychoanalysts. He has become a vocal critic of recent developments in relational psychoanalysis, advancing views that are explored here and subjected to critical appraisal. To better understand Friedman's ideas, areas of disagreement with other authors, including Schafer, Renik, Hoffman, Mitchell, Rorty, and Michels, are explored. Finally, Friedman is presented as a crypto-intersubjectivist whose work effects a realignment of theory with practice.