Conclusions
I believe that we are moving toward a clinically derived, dialectic richness of psychoanalytic thought. This richness is particularly evident in the application of object relations to the extra-clinical contexts that thinking about alienation addresses. While the concept of alienation offers a broad and primal–if often hazy or seemingly ungraspable–presence in American culture, this concept provides a coherent social theory for strengthening psychotherapeutic clinical work. I would maintain, furthermore, that some theory like belief is always part of social life–if only in tacit, ideological form. It therefore is always part of the clinical mélange.
The developmental implications of object-relational psychoanalytic insights should continue to be drawn upon as guidance in effective psychotherapeutic clinical work—with the notion of effective participatory democracy–in political and in economic realms as well—serving as a prime principle of influence regarding clinical and social thinking. In sum, the guiding ideal for effective clinical practice should be the creation of a thoroughgoing democratic society inhabited by psychosociologically mature- reparative–people.
A resultant response to this ideal would be the entirely reasonable question “What would such a society be like?” A straightforward answer would be: “We don’t exactly yet know, though more guiding and predictive insight than is typically discussed is available.” I would postulate that individuals and society, in moving toward democratic maturity, would be modified in both foreseeable and unpredictable ways.
