The economy of freedom

Abstract

For the better part of two decades Jessica Benjamin has used psychoanalysis and her own creative impulses to theoretically explore the depth of the human psyche. She has perhaps given more emphasis to the affective domain than other writers, and one of her contributions to the ongoing debate is her development of the notion of intersubjectivity and the intersubjective moment. When a subjective position of self is surrendered to another only those two people alone know their situation in a manner no one else can. In the process, "thirdness" is created, as explained in 'Shadow of the Other', as a communicative relationship, and as a way of recognizing difference and tensions between self and another. In her chapter, Jessica Benjamin places before the audience a proposal on how one can intellectually and emotionally transform the dynamics of intrapsychic events (one-person economy, as per Freud) into a two-person economy. As I read her text, the notion of a seesaw comes to mind as an image of the interdependence that will make one or the other respond to each other's emotional states. I come back to this later.