| Abstract: | Both commentaries address, from different perspectives, the controversies inherent in the idea of a transpersonal field. In response to Menaker, I examine the ways in which this territory cannot be adequately conceptualized from within the framework of existing theory and therefore is experienced as disruptive and destabilizing. I also focus on the gradual movement within contemporary psychoanalytic approaches toward realites that invite such a paradiamatic shift. In response to Altman, I agree that the intersubjective is not superseded by the transpersonal and emphasize that use of a transpersonal perspective to avoid intersubjective disruption is a form of perversion. I underscore Altman's use of contemporary scientific discoveries to substantiate the idea of a transcendent field yet emphasize that a transpersonal orientation also involves a willingness to encounter and tolerate the inexplicable. |
