Living Systems, Evolving Consciousness, and the Emerging Person: A Selection of Papers from the Life Work of Louis Sander (Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series)

296 Pages·2007·6.5 MB·English

by  Louis Sander

Living Systems,
Evolving Consciousness,
and the Emerging Person
Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series
Volume 26
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Psychoanalytic
Inquiry Book Series
Vol. 1: Refections on Self Psychology – Joseph D. Lichtenberg & Samuel Kaplan (eds.)
Vol. 2: Psychoanalysis and Infant Research – Joseph D. Lichtenberg
Vol. 4: Structures of Subjectivity: Explorations in Psychoanalytic Phenomenology – George E. Atwood &
Robert D. Stolorow
Vol. 7: The Borderline Patient: Emerging Concepts in Diagnosis, Psychodynamics, and Treatment, Vol. 2 –
James S. Grotstein, Marion F. Solomon, & Joan A. Lang (eds.)
Vol. 8: Psychoanalytic Treatment: An Intersubjective Approach – Robert D. Stolorow, Bernard
Brandchaft, & George E. Atwood
Vol. 9: Female Homosexuality: Choice Without Volition – Elaine V. Siegel
Vol. 10: Psychoanalysis and Motivation – Joseph D. Lichtenberg
Vol. 11: Cancer Stories: Creativity and Self-Repair – Esther Dreifuss Kattan
Vol. 12: Contexts of Being: The Intersubjective Foundations of Psychological Life – Robert D. Stolorow &
George E. Atwood
Vol. 13: Self and Motivational Systems: Toward a Theory of Psychoanalytic Technique – Joseph D.
Lichtenberg, Frank M. Lachmann, & James L. Fosshage
Vol. 14: Affects as Process: An Inquiry into the Centrality of Affect in Psychological Life – Joseph M. Jones
Vol. 15: Understanding Therapeutic Action: Psychodynamic Concepts of Cure – Lawrence E. Lifson (ed.)
Vol. 16: The Clinical Exchange: Techniques Derived from Self and Motivational Systems – Joseph D.
Lichtenberg, Frank M. Lachmann, & James L. Fosshage
Vol. 17: Working Intersubjectively: Contextualism in Psychoanalytic Practice – Donna M. Orange,
George E. Atwood, & Robert D. Stolorow
Vol. 18: Kohut, Loewald, and the Postmoderns: A Comparative Study of Self and Relationship – Judith
Guss Teicholz
Vol. 19: A Spirit of Inquiry: Communication in Psychoanalysis – Joseph D. Lichtenberg, Frank M.
Lachmann, & James L. Fosshage
Vol. 20: Craft and Spirit: A Guide to Exploratory Psychotherapies – Joseph D. Lichtenberg
Vol. 21: Attachment and Sexuality – Diana Diamond, Sidney J. Blatt, & Joseph D. Lichtenberg
Vol. 22: Psychotherapy and Medication: The Challenge of Integration – Fredric N. Busch & Larry S.
Sandberg
Vol. 23: Trauma and Human Existence: Autobiographical, Psychoanalytic, and Philosophical Refections
– Robert D. Stolorow
Vol. 24: Jealousy and Envy: New Views about Two Powerful Feelings – Léon Wurmser & Heidrun Jarass
Vol. 25: Sensuality and Sexuality Across the Divide of Shame – Joseph D. Lichtenberg
Vol. 26: Living Systems, Evolving Consciousness, and the Emerging Person: A Collection of Papers from the
Life Work of Louis Sander – Louis Sander
Vol. 27: Toward a Psychology of Uncertainty: Trauma-Centered Psychoanalysis – Doris Brothers
Vol. 28: Transforming Narcissism: Refections on Humor, Empathy, and Expectations – Frank Lachmann
Vol. 29: Mentalization: Theoretical Considerations, Research Findings, and Clinical Implications – Fredric
N. Busch (ed.)
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Living Systems,
Evolving Consciousness,
and the Emerging Person
A Selection of Papers from the
Life Work of Louis Sander
Edited by Gherardo Amadei and Ilaria Bianchi
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Cover photograph by Allen Palmer, M.D. Copyright © 2004 by Allen Palmer, M.D.
The Analytic Press The Analytic Press
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
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New York, NY 10016 Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA
© 2008 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
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International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-88163-464-8 (Hardcover)
No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming,
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the
publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sander, Louis W.
Living systems, evolving consciousness, and the emerging person : a selection of
papers from the life work of Louis Sander / Louis Sander.
p. ; cm. -- (Psychoanalytic inquiry book series ; v. 26)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-88163-464-8 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Infant psychiatry. 2. Infant psychology. 3. Mother and infant. 4. Developmental
psychobiology. I. Title. II. Series.
[DNLM: 1. Social Adjustment--Collected Works. 2. Adaptation,
Psychological--Collected Works. 3. Child--Collected Works. 4. Child
Development--Collected Works. 5. Consciousness--Collected Works. 6.
Infant--Collected Works. 7. Mother-Child Relations--Collected Works. W1 PS427F
v.26 2008 / WS 105.5.A8 S214L 2008]
RJ502.5.S36 2008 616.89’17--dc22 2007019703
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
and The Analytic Press Web site at
http://www.analyticpress.com
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Editors’ Notes
This book project started, toward the end of the nineties, from my
request (G. A.) of Louis Sander to have access to his non-published mate-
rial. A correspondence between us developed from my initial contact, and
I still remember the emotions conjured up when I received his frst, kind
letter of response, handwritten in tiny handwriting but completely intel-
ligible. The correspondence continued, little by little, regarding plans to
collect, for the frst time, those items that Sander himself deemed could
best explain “a life’s work.” I am grateful to Sander for having entrusted
me with the task of editing his book, which, after arranging 13 chapters,
I then shared with I. B., who was becoming interested in infant research
and moving from the theory to the observation of infant development.
The work is therefore born from meetings, not only of minds, but also of
people—namely, between us, Sander, and the BPCSG (Boston Process of
Change Study Group), that today seeks to develop Sander’s continually
inspiring theories.
The complexity of Sander’s writings, the necessity to eliminate rep-
etitions inevitably present in work that spanned decades, the need to
lighten the studies’ methodological explanations (but in a way that still
allowed the reader access to the acute interpretations of the results sug-
gested by the author), and lastly, the importance of arriving at a complete
book (rather than a collection of papers)—all required time and attention.
Knowing this could not have been done to perfection, we hope to have
created a suitable work that does justice to the necessity of sharing, in its
fnal united form, the work of a great scientist who, in our opinion, has
a poet’s soul in him, as demonstrated by various passages in his writing,
as in the case of the fnal chapter that mingles existential and spiritual
issues. It was our unforgettable honor to have worked on it. We believe we
have done so with care, and certainly with love and respect.
v
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Contents
Foreword ix
Preface xiii
Preface to German Edition xvii
Part 1
1. Issues in Early Mother–Child Interaction 3
2. Adaptive Relationships in Early Mother–Child Interaction 25
3. The Longitudinal Course of Early Mother–Child Interaction:
Cross-Case Comparison in a Sample of Mother–Child Pairs 53
4. Infant and Caretaking Environment: Investigation and
Conceptualization of Adaptive Behavior in a System of
Increasing Complexity 89
Part 2
5. Investigation of the Infant and Its Caregiving Environment as a
Biological System 115
6. Investigation of Interactive Regulation in Three Infant
Caretaking Systems 139
7. The Event-Structure of Regulation in the Neonate–Caregiver
System as a Biological Background for Early Organization of
Psychic Structure 153
8. Paradox and Resolution: From the Beginning 167
9. Recognition Process: Context and Experience of Being Known 177
vii
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viii Contents
Part 3
10. Refections on Developmental Process: Wholeness, Specifcity,
and the Organization of Conscious Experiencing 195
11. Awareness of Inner Experience: A Systems Perspective on Self-
Regulatory Process in Early Development 205
12. Thinking Differently: Principles of Process in Living Systems
and the Specifcity of Being Known 215
13. Development as Creative Process 235
Epilogue 251
Author Index 253
Subject Index 257
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Foreword
Some people can see the forest but not the trees. Some people can see
the trees but not the forest. Some people can see both and some rare people
not only can see the forest and the trees but also appreciate the complexity
of the entire ecological system. Louis W. Sander is such a rare person. As
Dr. Sander states in chapter 8, the real problem for infant research is the
translation of principles governing the developmental processes to their
incorporation within the exchanges and interactions that will be the shap-
ing forces in new infant–caregiver systems. The extent of “forest” covered
by Sander is vast indeed: the formulation of basic principles of processes
that govern all living systems, ranging from the cellular level to the level
of human consciousness. And the focus on “trees” is penetrating indeed:
richly documented research fndings comparing specifc mother–child
pairs over both brief and long segments of time. By examining fndings
from the specifc pairs and comparing them to other pairs, Sander’s stud-
ies reveal both continuities and discontinuities of the development. Sander
tracks and demonstrates the integration of two processes: the increasingly
complex levels of getting together between caretaker and neonate, infant,
and child (the relational aspect), and the increased complexity of the neo-
nate’s, infant’s, and child’s coherence of organization and growing aware-
ness of self and other (the intrapsychic aspect).
I present this highly condensed summary of critical aspects of the
conceptual range that Sander covered to whet the reader’s appetite for a
remarkable tour of infant studies revealed by one of the most renowned
masters of the feld. I need to mention several other orienting comments.
Sander writes about systems: living systems, mother–child systems, and
family systems. In 2007 that hardly seems worthy of comment, but Sander
was conceptualizing development in terms of systems when the analytic
feld was locked into a language of psychic structures that tended toward
a linear conception of energic vector forces operating in an exclusively
intrapsychic domain. Sander’s contribution is seminal to our contempo-
rary approach to nonlinear systems evolving in an intersubjective, inter-
active feld of ftting together and achieving moments of meeting through
mutual recognition. I encourage the reader to appreciate Sander’s view
of evolution in its broadest context, and as it moves to open the potential
available to every mother–infant pair as they negotiate specifc tasks of ft-
ting together or adaptation over a span of time. Finally, I regard Sander as
ix
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