Abstract
This paper offers a new take on friendship, its specific qualities, how it is subjectively experienced and changes over the course of a patient’s life and how it might serve as catalyst for positive change in the therapeutic process. The premise is based on the Aristotelian definition of friendship as a friendship of virtue, as well as on insights stemming from intersubjective thinking, and observations about horizontal relationships in contemporary psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. A review of the scant psychodynamic and psychoanalytic literature on friendship is presented and the author notes its marginal place in the lexicon compared with other more extensively studied relationships. Three clinical cases are presented to illustrate the potential of “friendships of virtue” as paths toward positive transformation in the course of treatment.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 89-109 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | American Journal of Psychoanalysis |
| Volume | 83 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 13 Feb 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023, Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.
Funding
This paper is based on a presentation given at the 2019 IARPP [The International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy] conference in Tel Aviv, Israel. I have great appreciation for Joyce Slochower PhD, ABPP, for her knowledge, rich insights and invaluable contributions to this paper. My work wouldn’t be complete without the careful reading, thoughtful comments, and editing of Kendra Terry, Doctoral candidate (Adelphi University). Many thanks to my friends, to Mitchell Becker PhD (BIU), for his enthusiasm and encouragement and to Esther Rot MA (TAU), for her great help with literature. My thanks to Professor Aner Govrin (BIU), Professor Orit Taubman-Ben-Ari (BIU), Susan Goodman, LCSW (NYU), Ilana Laor, PhD (TAU), Irene Melnick MA, Oren Sol, PhD and Udi Chen, MA, for reading an early version of the paper and encouraging me to seek publication of it.
| Funders |
|---|
| Irene Melnick MA |
| LCSW |
| Susan Goodman |
| Adelphi University |
UN SDGs
This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
Keywords
- Aristotle
- friendship
- horizontal relationships
- psychotherapy
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