Agency in relational psychoanalysis: Can psychoanalysis still set us free

This dissertation critically examines the issue of agency in relational psychoanalysis. It argues that agency must remain a central issue in psychoanalysis if psychoanalysis is to maintain the expansion of human freedom as a fundamental goal. It focuses on the impact of two major theoretical shifts that characterize the relational movement: the shift from a self organized by repression to a self organized by dissociation, and the shift from a one-person psychology to a two-person psychology. The dissertation evaluates what relational psychoanalysis can contribute to theorizing agency and to working clinically with patients who have problems in agency, suggesting that aspects of relational psychoanalysis may make it particularly well-suited to working clinically with problems in agency. Next, it evaluates the limitations of relational psychoanalysis in theorizing agency and working clinically with problems in agency. Finally, it explores what remains to be theorized to develop a fuller conceptualization of agency in a relational movement that seeks to carry forward the emancipatory potential of psychoanalysis.