Psychoanalytic sensibility and honoring individual differences

a conversation with Nancy McWilliams

Nancy McWilliams

pp. 315-340

in: Heather Macdonald, David Goodman, Brian Becker (eds), Dialogues at the edge of American psychological discourse, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

Nancy McWilliams, who is greatly influenced by the work of George Atwood and Robert Stolorow on intersubjectivity, wonders if, as clinicians, we are able to view the patient through larger frameworks beyond the symptomology described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Health Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2013). She asks in her interview, "Is the person's life improving in the areas of love, in work, and play? Or increasing in self-esteem and affect tolerance and regulation or security of attachment?" And, "Do they have a sense of vitality?" Most importantly, she views these questions in the context of the intersubjective attunement she shares with each person she works with.

Cited authors

American Psychiatric Association

Stolorow Robert

Atwood George

McWilliams Nancy