The figure of the Other is an important though underutilized vehicle for exploring and reconceptualizing classic psychological and philosophical issues, from identity and purpose to human frailty and suffering. Moreover, it can be used to reorient inquiry toward aspects of the human condition that are often regarded as secondary or peripheral--for instance, our responsibility to others and to the environment. A broad spectrum of disciplines including psychology, philosophy, theology, and religious studies speak about the challenges we face in encountering the Other vis-?-vis our receptivity, openness, and capacity to entertain the stranger in our midst.Through constructive critical exchange, Psychology and the Other engages such perspectives on the Other from various subdisciplines within psychology and related disciplines. The volume uses the language of the Other as a vehicle for rethinking aspects of psychological processes, especially within the therapeutic context. As a group, the contributors demonstrate that the language of the Other may be more fitting than the egocentric language frequently employed in psychology. They also embrace the challenge to create new theories and practices that are more ethically attuned to the dynamic realities of psychological functioning.The book is organized into three sections. The first deals with foundational philosophical concerns and provides an introduction to the project of "thinking Otherwise." The second section brings these fundamental philosophical concerns to bear on the therapeutic situation, especially in the realm of relational psychoanalysis. The final section of the book addresses concrete psychological situations in which the Other figures prominently and where the power of thinking Otherwise is most visibly demonstrated.

ContributorsIntroduction: Why the Other?David Goodman and Mark FreemanSection I: Thinking Otherwise about the Human ConditionChapter 2: Time and Lament: Levinas and the Impossible Possibility of TherapyEric SeversonChapter 3: The Fourth/Reduction: Carl Jung, Richard Kearney, and the Via Tertia of OthernessAmy Bentley LambornChapter 4: Transcendence, Renewal, and Reconciliation in Ronald Laing and Hans LoewaldMarsha HewittChapter 5: Eros, Transcendence, and Reconciliation: Ronald Laing and Hans LoewaldAlfred TauberChapter 6: The Melancholy of Psychoanalysis: Marion, Kristeva, and the Difference of TheologyJennifer WangSection II: Healing Through RelationChapter 7: Kierkegaard and the Other: A Phenomenological PsychotherapyMerold WestphalCommentary on Westphal: The Patient's Intentionality as PrimaryElizabeth A. CorptChapter 8: The Difficulty of Being Two: Subjectivity and Otherness according to Lacan and LevinasJeffrey BloechlCommentary on Bloechl: The Levinasian FreudMark FreemanChapter 9: Beyond Sameness and Difference: Normative Unconscious Processes and Our Mutual Implication in Each Other's SufferingLynne LaytonCommentary on Layton: Beyond Sameness and Difference--Some Transnational PerspectivesLeslie A. AdelsonChapter 10: The Shock of Recognition: What My Grandfather Taught Me About Psychoanalytic ProcessStuart A. PizerCommentary on Pizer: The Refugee in the Kitchen--Variations on Hineni for Stuart Pizer and His GrandfatherDonna M. OrangeChapter 11: Beyond Alterity: The Path to GratitudeMarie HoffmanCommentary on Hoffman: Gratitude and Existential UncertaintyDoris BrothersChapter 12: Being-in-the-World and Schizophrenia: Three Phenomenological Approaches to Self-Experience in SchizophreniaElizabeth GroszCommentary on Grosz: The Anguish of the Intermediaries--The Lived Experience of SchizophreniaHeather Macdonald and Christy HobzaSection III: Voices in the Field of the OtherChapter 13: Confronting Otherness and Negotiating Identity in the German Jewish ExperienceRoger FrieChapter 14: On Psychologizing the Other: Plato, Pith Helmets, and PathologyAlvin DueckChapter 15: The Pornographic Self: Technology, Vulnerability, and "Risk Free" DesireDavid GoodmanChapter 16: The Inbox as Home: A Radical Rethinking of HospitalityHeather MacdonaldChapter 17: Writing the Vignette: The Reversing of the SubjectivePeter AugustIndex