Table Of Content“Analysts have come increasingly to recognize the relevance of a rather vaguely
apprehended ‘field theory’ to psychoanalysis. In this rigorous and ground-
breaking book, Dr. Katz articulates and clarifies the theory, heuristic principles,
and clinical techniques of psychoanalytic field theory. Dividing psychoanalysis
into three models – mythopoeic, plasmic and oneiric – allows her to offer an
imaginative analytic process. Her book is an immensely thoughtful and scholarly
effort and a seminal contribution to a revitalized interest in the relevance of field
theory to psychoanalysis.”
—Edgar Levenson, Fellow Emeritus, Training, Supervisory
Analyst and Faculty, William Alanson White Institute,
2006 Mary S. Sigourney Award winner.
“Montana Katz is at ease in the din created by the voices of many people express-
ing different thoughts. She imagines them as if they were workers, who are work-
ing in one and the same site. Montana is well aware of the fact that individuals
are important, but the collective enterprise is what really matters: the attempt to
build a psychoanalytic field theory, both consistent and useful to clinical practice.
Montana, in this book, tells the story of this undertaking, giving a valuable contri-
bution of ideas and clarifying the general framework.”
—Claudio Neri, M.D, Psychoanalyst, Founding Member of
The International Field Theory Association.
“Montana Katz offers us the first comprehensive comparison of the different
kinds of psychoanalytic fields. With her incisive and probing discussion, rich
with clinical illustration, Katz points the way to the future of bi-personal fields in
psychoanalysis.”
—Madeleine Baranger, Argentine Psychoanalytic Association,
2008 Mary S. Sigourney Award winner.
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Contemporary Psychoanalytic
Field Theory
Contemporary Psychoanalytic Field Theory articulates the theory, heuristic prin-
ciples, and clinical techniques of psychoanalytic field theory. S. Montana Katz
describes the historical, philosophical, and clinical contexts for the development
of field theory in South America, North America, and Europe.
Field theory is a family of related bi-personal psychoanalytic perspectives fall-
ing into three principal models that developed relatively independently. One of the
principal models is based upon the work of Madeleine and Willy Baranger. The
second, constructed by Katz, draws upon what is held in common by the implicit
field theories in the United States of the interpersonal, intersubjective, relational,
and motivational systems psychoanalytic perspectives. The third is based upon the
work of Antonino Ferro. Katz elucidates the conception of mind, unconscious pro-
cesses, therapeutic goals, clinical techniques, and the specific field concept that each
employs. The work illustrates the similarities and differences between the models.
The book also offers a fabricated analytic process in which an analysand, Zoe,
is engaged in three analyses. Each analyst works with the techniques of one of the
three field theories. Katz conveys the diverging thought processes and technical
choices of each analyst and the potentially different therapeutic outcomes of the
application of each model. In the final chapters, Katz moves beyond the specific
field theories to articulate a concept of a general field that underlies the three field
concepts. She explores how to use this generalized field to find a form of common
ground amongst the field theories and conjectures that this generalized concept has
application beyond field theory to a greater range of psychoanalytic perspectives.
Contemporary Psychoanalytic Field Theory provides a clear and comprehen-
sive guide that will appeal to psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic psychotherapists,
mental health professionals, and clinicians, as well as to philosophers, psycholo-
gists, sociologists, and anthropologists.
S. Montana Katz is a founding Co-Director of the International Field Theory
Association. She is a Training and Supervising Analyst and Senior Faculty Mem-
ber at the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalytic Field Theory Book Series
S. Montana Katz & Giuseppe Civitarese
Series Editors
The Routledge Psychoanalytic Field Theory Book Series was initiated in
2015 as a new subseries of the Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series. The
series publishes books on subjects relevant to the continuing development
of psychoanalytic field theory. The emphasis of this series is on contem-
porary work that includes a vision of the future for psychoanalytic field
theory.
Since the middle of the twentieth century, forms of psychoanalytic field
theory have emerged in different parts of the world with different objec-
tives, heuristic principles, and clinical techniques. Taken together, they
form a family of psychoanalytic perspectives that employs a concept of a
bi-personal psychoanalytic field. The Psychoanalytic Field Theory Book
Series seeks to represent this pluralism in its publications. Books on field
theory in all its diverse forms are of interest in this series, which will pub-
lish both theoretical works and discussions of clinical technique.
The series editors are especially interested in selecting manuscripts that
actively promote the understanding and further expansion of psychoana-
lytic field theory. Part of the mission of the series is to foster communi-
cation amongst psychoanalysts working in different models, in different
languages, and in different parts of the world.
Vol. 1
Contemporary Psychoanalytic Field Theory
S. Montana Katz
Contemporary Psychoanalytic
Field Theory
Stories, dreams, and metaphor
S. Montana Katz
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2017 S. Montana Katz
The right of S. Montana Katz to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Katz, Montana, author.
Title: Contemporary psychoanalytic field theory : stories, dreams,
and metaphor / S. Montana Katz.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2017. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016003352 | ISBN 9781138794986 (hardback :
alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138794993 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781315758749 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Psychoanalysis. | Field theory (Social psychology)
Classification: LCC RC504 .K38 2017 | DDC 616.89/17—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016003352
ISBN: 978-1-138-79498-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-79499-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-75874-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Foreword by Joseph Lichtenberg ix
Acknowledgements xiii
PART I
The first wave of psychoanalytic field theory 1
1 Introduction 3
2 Overview of psychoanalytic field theory: Past, present,
and future 12
3 The first model of psychoanalytic field theory:
The mythopoeic model 23
4 The second model of psychoanalytic field theory:
The plasmic model 34
PART II
The second wave of psychoanalytic field theory 51
5 The third model of psychoanalytic field theory:
The oneiric model 53
6 Clinical case: Zoe 64
7 Analytic listening in the three models 74
8 The initial phase of Zoe’s analysis 83
viii Contents
9 Some theoretical considerations regarding clinical process 100
10 Tools and techniques of clinical process in the three field
theory models 109
PART III
The third wave of psychoanalytic field theory 129
11 A discussion of the three models of contemporary
psychoanalytic field theory 131
12 General psychoanalytic fields and their uses 143
13 Concluding remarks on psychoanalysis as a holistic endeavor 155
Bibliography 161
Index 171
Foreword
“What is a field theory?” asked several members of the editorial board of
Psychoanalytic Inquiry – a group of highly knowledgeable North Ameri-
can psychoanalysts – when Montana Katz first proposed it for a journal
topic. Consequently, Contemporary Psychoanalytic Field Theory: Sto-
ries, Dreams, and Metaphor can be regarded as the culmination of several
efforts Dr. Katz and others have made to answer the question. Of course,
being a psychoanalytic theory, or in the metaphor we use for scale and
scope – a metatheory, field theory cannot be described as a simple coher-
ent grouping of ideas. No psychoanalytic theory ever can be. Our theo-
ries follow the destiny of all the systems that humans create. First they
become organized, then when they’re stabilized they function in dialectic
tension with other systems (theories), oscillate between order and chaos,
and have tipping points lending to modification and reformulation. In this
book, Dr. Katz helps the reader track many of the permutations taken by
field theory.
My starting point for understanding field theory is as an analytic practi-
tioner and theorist who moved through ego psychology, self-psychology,
interpersonal/intersubjective psychoanalysis, and other variations on the
theme of explaining the human mind. These studies led to my formula-
tion of motivational system theory. Because of this background, I find it
easy to recognize that the analysand-analyst dyad cocreates a field. That
is, in the consulting room as analysand and analyst communicate about
something, an I and a you become a we, an us, and an affective world, an
ambiance, emerges – a psychoanalytic field. Put simply, in my view, field
theory is designed to explicate the “something more than” – a non-linear
imaginative mode of communication between humans that is inquiring
