Jessica Benjamin is a psychoanalyst known for her contributions to psychoanalysis and social thought. She is currently a practicing psychoanalyst in New York City where she is on the faculty of the New York University Postdoctoral Psychology Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, and the Stephen Mitchell Center for Relational Studies. Jessica Benjamin is one of the original contributors to the fields of relational psychoanalysis, theories of intersubjectivity, and gender studies and feminism as it relates to psychoanalysis and society. She is known for her ideas about recognition in both human development and the sociopolitical arena.
Early life and education
Jessica Benjamin was born to a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family and earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1967, and her MA from the University of Frankfurt in West Germany, where she studied Psychology, Sociology and Philosophy. Jessica Benjamin earned her PhD in Sociology from NYU in 1978. She received her psychoanalytic training from New York University Postdoctoral Psychology Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and engaged in post doc research on infancy with Dr. Beatrice Beebe at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Contributions to the field
Benjamin is considered to be one of the most important and influential psychoanalysts of the last four decades. She is one of the founders of relational psychoanalysis, and is one of the first to introduce feminism and gender studies into psychoanalytic thought.
Her early studies included
social structure
In the social sciences, social structure is the aggregate of patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of individuals. Likewise, society is believed to be grouped into structurally rel ...
and
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
, but more recently she is known for her effort to explain the classical aspects of
psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
using
object relations
Object relations theory is a school of thought in psychoanalytic theory centered around theories of stages of ego development. Its concerns include the relation of the psyche to others in childhood and the exploration of relationships between ...
,
relational psychoanalysis
Relational psychoanalysis is a school of psychoanalysis in the United States that emphasizes the role of real and imagined relationships with others in mental disorder and psychotherapy. 'Relational psychoanalysis is a relatively new and evolving ...
, and feminist thought. She has made significant contributions to the concept of
intersubjectivity in psychoanalysis.
[Harriet Kimble Wrye]
Review of ''Shadow of the Other''
Dallas Psychoanalytic Center, reprinted from ''Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association
The ''Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association'' is a bi-monthly peer-reviewed healthcare journal covering all aspects of psychoanalysis and is the official journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. The editor in chief is Mitch ...
'' 47 (accessed September 8, 2008).
In 2015, Benjamin received the
Hans-Kilian-Award The Hans Kilian Award honored researchers whose outstanding scientific achievements provide a deeper insight into the historical and cultural existence of humankind and the changing human psyche. The award, a cash prize of 80,000 euros, was one of t ...
for her achievements in the fields of psychoanalysis, feminist psychology and the theory of intersubjective recognition.
She is a Fellow of the
New York Institute for the Humanities The New York Institute for the Humanities (NYIH) is an academic organization founded by Richard Sennett in 1976 to promote the exchange of ideas between academics, writers, and the general public. The NYIH regularly holds seminars open to the publ ...
.
Selected bibliography
Books
Benjamin has published four books.
In ''The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism and the Problem of Domination'' (1988) Benjamin undertook a major revision of Freud's theories of both human development and sexuality. Using contemporary research on infancy and gender, she argued for the importance of recognition and the intersubjective relationship. Against this background, she showed how relationships of domination involve the alienation of recognition, and a form of gender splitting she called gender polarity. She argued that we accept and perpetuate relationships of domination not because of an inherent aggressive instinct, but the difficulty of recognizing the Other. She theorizes that domination is a complex psychological process which ensnares both parties in bonds of complicity, and supports this by showing how it affects our family life, our social institutions, and especially our sexual relations, in spite of our conscious commitment to equality and freedom.
''The Bonds of Love, Revisited'' is an edition that celebrates the influence of Jessica Benjamin's work through fifteen essays that look back on the book's impact, offering theoretical deliberations and elaborations of the book's original themes and reflection on the book's impact personally and professionally, for clinicians and feminists around the world.
Benjamin's second book, ''Like Subjects, Love Objects: Essays on Recognition and Sexual Difference'' (1995) further developed the psychoanalytic theory of
intersubjectivity
In philosophy, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, intersubjectivity is the relation or intersection between people's cognitive perspectives.
Definition
is a term coined by social scientists to refer to a variety of types of human interac ...
, revising Freud's oedipal theory to include both genders' need to integrate independence and connection. She builds on the foundation of
Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...
's
Oedipal theory, critically revising it to include the female's struggle for independence. She argues that traditional Freudian theories inevitably reproduce
patriarchal gender relationships which are characterized by domination and submission, most notably reflected in the cultural polarity of male rationality and female vulnerability.
''Shadow of the Other: Intersubjectivity and Gender in Psychoanalysis'' (1997), extends Benjamin's work on
intersubjectivity
In philosophy, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, intersubjectivity is the relation or intersection between people's cognitive perspectives.
Definition
is a term coined by social scientists to refer to a variety of types of human interac ...
, love and
aggression
Aggression is overt or covert, often harmful, social interaction with the intention of inflicting damage or other harm upon another individual; although it can be channeled into creative and practical outlets for some. It may occur either reacti ...
.
In 2017, Benjamin published her fourth book, ''Beyond Doer and Done to: Recognition Theory, Intersubjectivity and the Third'', an expansion of her theory of mutual recognition and its breakdown into the complementarity of "doer and done to."
Articles
Benjamin's 2004 article "Beyond doer and done to: An intersubjective view of thirdness" is the 4th most cited journal article in the field of psychoanalysis.
Benjamin, J. (2004). Beyond doer and done to: An intersubjective view of thirdness. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, LXXIII.
Benjamin, J. (2005). From many into one: Attention, energy and the containing of multitudes. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 15, 185–201.
Benjamin, J. (2009). A relational psychoanalysis perspective on the necessity of acknowledging failure in order to restore the facilitating and containing features of the intersubjective relationship (The Shared Third). International Journal of PsychoAnalyisis, 90, 441–450.
Benjamin, J. (2010). Can we recognize each other? Response to Donna Orange. The International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 5, 244–256.
Benjamin, J. (2010). Where's the gap and what's the difference?: The relational view of intersubjectivity, multiple selves, and enactments. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 46, 112–119.
Benjamin, J. (2011). Facing reality together discussion: With culture in mind: The social third. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 12, 27–36.
External links
Jessica Benjamin Papers- Pembroke Center Archives, Brown University
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benjamin, Jessica
1946 births
Living people
American psychoanalysts
Jewish psychoanalysts
Relational psychoanalysts
Feminist psychologists
New York University faculty