title: The renewal of humanism in psychoanalytic therapy.
abstract: The renewal of humanistic values and practices in contemporary psychoanalytic therapy is exemplified vividly by the impact of Heidegger's existential philosophy on a psychoanalytic perspective called post-Cartesian psychoanalysis. This perspective is a phenomenological-contextualist one in which the focus of psychoanalytic inquiry is shifted from Cartesian isolated minds to ways of being-in-the-world, and from endogenously arising drive derivatives to relationally constituted emotional experiences. A phenomenological-contextualist approach is shown to be especially fruitful in the understanding of, and therapeutic approach to, emotional trauma. The establishment of a hospitable relational home in which traumatic emotional pain and excruciating existential vulnerability can find a context of human understanding in which they can be held is crucial for therapeutic transformation.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles, California, USA. robertdstolorow@gmail.com
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Stolorow
mesh_terms: D006808:Humanism; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D011572:Psychoanalysis / Q000941:ethics / Q000379:methods; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000941:ethics / Q000379:methods*