Beyond Doer and Done to : Recognition Theory, Intersubjectivity and the Third

Beyond Doer and Done to integrates new clinical developments in relational analysis while reformulating crucial themes such as the development of intersubjectivity, the splitting of gender complementarity, and recognizing difference in relation to the other. Bringing together Benjamin’s ground-breaking concepts, Beyond Doer and Done to will be an essential reading for those interested in contemporary intersubjective work, both psychoanalysts and psychotherapists as well as theorists in the humanities and social sciences.

In Beyond Doer and Done To, Jessica Benjamin, author of the path-breaking Bonds of Love, expands her theory of mutual recognition and its breakdown into the complementarity of "doer and done to." Her innovative theory charts the growth of the Third in early development through the movement between recognition and breakdown, and shows how it parallels the enactments in the psychoanalytic relationship. Benjamin’s recognition theory illuminates the radical potential of acknowledgment in healing both individual and social trauma, in creating relational repair in the transformational space of thirdness. Benjamin’s unique formulations of intersubjectivity make essential reading for both psychoanalytic therapists and theorists in the humanities and social sciences.