Abstract

This dissertation employs a thematic hermeneutic method to critique and revise psychoanalytic theory on countertransference. Psychoanalytic theory is criticized for its reliance on subject/object epistemology. The subject/object assumption is initially found in the early orthodox views that were committed to the idea of the neutral analyst, and then located in the supposed second tier of countertransference theory that described its constructive possibilities. The subject/object assumption is also detected within contemporary psychoanalytic intersubjectivity theory, which has been a partially successful attempt to resolve the epistemological dilemma. Intersubjectivity theory's incomplete resolution rests against a philosophical backdrop composed of the works of Sartre, Husserl, and Heidegger. In this context, it is suggested that intersubjectivity theory has been successful in resolving only one-half of the Cartesian dilemma, but neglects the inherent mind/body split by failing to elucidate the nature of embodiment. Thus, implicitly at least, intersubjectivity theory perpetuates subject/object epistemology. ;A proposed resolution is drawn out of Merleau-Ponty's latter phenomenological work on the notion of flesh. Merleau-Ponty refers to perceptually extended flesh as composed of partially visible and partially invisible dimensions. Flesh is constituted by an intertwining of sensory modalities with the elements of the perceptual field. An elucidation of psychoanalytic epistemology and ontology free of the subject/object assumption is undertaken while drawing on the notion of flesh. Yet limitations are found in the use of the notion of flesh, for it does not contain the activity of human motility and thus does not fully capture the embodied phenomenological experience of analytic encounter. ;Romanyshyn's work on the gestural field is discussed in terms of adding motility to Merleau-Ponty's flesh. But limitations are addressed in that the notion of gesture neither fully amplifies, nor fully animates, flesh. ;The final hermeneutic turn is toward pantomime, which inhabits flesh in the fullest, most animate, sense. It contains not only the motility of gesture but also the dialectical elements of persona and character. The work on pantomime, then, in conjunction with reverie, clears the ground for a fuller resolution of subject/object dichotomy within countertransference theory