Lewis Aron

Lewis Aron, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized teacher and lecturer on psychotherapy and psychoanalysis who has made significant contributions to psychoanalysis, particularly within the specialty known as relational psychoanalysis(Aron, 1996; Mitchell and Aron, 1999; Aron and Harris, 2005; Dorfman, 2006; Safran, 2009). Dr. Aron is the Director of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. He was the founding president of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and was formerly President of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association. He practices in New York where he is well-known for teaching ongoing study and reading groups for professional therapists. His 1996 volume A Meeting of Minds: Mutuality in Psychoanalysis and his (1999) edited volume with Stephen Mitchell, Relational Psychoanalysis: The Emergence of a Tradition are considered two of the essential texts in contemporary American psychoanalysis. Lewis Aron, together with Adrienne Harris, edits the Relational Perspectives Book Series, which has published the great number of texts in the field. Dr. Aron was one of the founders of the preeminent journal Psychoanalytic Dialogues: The International Journal of Relational Perspectives.

The term "relational psychoanalysis" was first used by Greenberg and Mitchell in 1983 to bridge the traditions of interpersonal relations, as developed within interpersonal psychoanalysis and object relations, as developed within contemporary British theory. But, under the seminal work of the late Stephen Mitchell, the term "relational psychoanalysis" grew and began to accrue to itself many other influences and developments (Mitchell and Aron, 1999). Various tributaries—interpersonal psychoanalysis, object relations theory, self psychology, empirical infancy research, and elements of contemporary Freudian and Kleinian thought—flow into this tradition, which understands relational configurations between self and others, both real and fantasied, as the primary subject of psychoanalytic investigation.

Relational psychoanalysis has become the dominant form of American contemporary psychoanalysis. Lewis Aron's contributions have included

• the development and expansion of relational theory and practice.
• a comprehensive examination of the patient's experience of the analyst's subjectivity.
• a view of psychoanalysis that emphasizes mutual regulation and mutual recognition, even within the context of a certain necessary asymmetry of roles and responsibilities.
• studies on the ethics of psychoanalysis and particularly the ethics of writing about patients.
• examination of controversies in psychoanalytic education and psychoanalytic institutions.
• explorations of psychoanalysis, religion, and spirituality.
• studies of the ways in which psychoanalysis historically defined itself in opposition to psychotherapy, paying special attention to the surprising relevance of racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and homophobia in the origins of psychoanalysis.
• the development of a "progressive psychoanalysis" for the twenty-first century.

Authored and Edited Works

• Aron, L. (1996), A Meeting of Minds: Mutuality in Psychoanalysis Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
• Aron, L. and Harris, A., EDS. (1993), The Legacy of Sandor Ferenczi, Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
• Aron, L. and Anderson, F. S., EDS. (1998), Relational Perspectives on the Body, Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
• Mitchell, S. A. and Aron, L., EDS. Relational Psychoanalysis: The Emergence of a Tradition, Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
• Aron, L. and Harris, A., EDS. (2005). Relational Psychoanalysis II: Innovation and Expansion, Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
• Suchet, M. Harris, A. and Aron, L., EDS. (2007), Relational Psychoanalysis III: New Voices, Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
• Aron, L. and Henik, L., EDS. (2010), Answering a Question With A Question: Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Jewish Thought, Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
• Aron, L. and Harris, A. (2011), Relational Psychoanalysis IV: Expansion of Theory, Routledge
• Aron, L. and Harris, A. (2011), Relational Psychoanalysis V: Evolution of Process, Routledge
• Lewis Aron and Karen Starr (2012), A Psychotherapy for the People: Toward a Progressive Psychoanalysis, Routledge.

References

• Dorfman, B. (2005), "Meeting Lew Aron's Mind: An Interview" by Beth Dorfman, LCSW, Psychoanalytic Perspectives, 2005 http://www.lewaron.com/LA%20Interview%202005.pdf
• Safran, J. D. (2009), Interview with Lewis Aron. Psychoanalytic Psychology. 26, 99–116. http://www.lewaron.com/SafranInterview09.pdf
• Aron, L. and Harris, A. (2005), Relational Psychoanalysis II: Innovation and Expansion, Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
• Aron, L. (1996), A Meeting of Minds. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
• Mitchell, S. A. and Aron, L. (1999), Relational Psychoanalysis: The Emergence of a Tradition. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.

See Also

For a broad scholarly overview of relational psychoanalysis see:

Aron, L. and Lechich M., (2012). Relational psychoanalysis, in Textbook of Psychoanalysis, 2nd Edition. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Publishing, pp 211-224.

External links

• Official website