Paper Session C

1. World Horizons:
A Post-Cartesian Alternative to the
Freudian Unconscious

Presenters:

Robert D. Stolorow, PhD
Donna M. Orange, PhD, PsyD

Discussants:

George E. Atwood, PhD
Charles M. Jaffe, MD

Self Psychology Page | 23rd Conference Program

Overview

Beginning with a critique of the Cartesian, isolated-mind assumptions that saturate the Freudian vision of the unconscious, this article proposes the concept of multiply contextualized experiential worlds and their limiting horizons as a post-Cartesian alternative to the Freudian unconscious. To illustrate this contextualization, a dramatic instance of unconsciousness illuminated during an analysis conducted by one of the authors nearly 30 years ago is reexamined from an intersubjective systems perspective.

Self Psychology Page | 23rd Conference Program