Beyond intersubjectivity: Personalization and community.

Abstract

In this article, personalization is defined as diverse forms of recognizing the other as a unique, responsive, inviolable, and valued subject, all of which are contingent upon community. The processes of personalization are depicted further in terms of (a) the dialectic of recognition and negation, (b) personal and impersonal epistemologies, (c) intentionality and fact, and (d) asymmetrical and mutual recognition. Good enough parenting may be understood in terms of varied forms of personalization, which contribute to psychosocial achievements-psyche-soma integration, sense of going on being or cohesion, selfcontinuity, sense of aliveness and being real, the capacity to make use of social reality, self-reflection, and emotional regulation. These forms of personalization are supported by the community's web of symbols-symbols that facilitate and represent recognition and appearance of the other as a unique subject. Given the relation between personalization and community, transference is reconceptualized as the patient's history of personalizing, impersonalizing, and/or depersonalizing interactions, as well as his or her desire for and fear of personalization and fellowship.