Coke or Pepsi? Reflections on Freudian and Relational Psychoanalysts in Dialogue

The medical ferment of the 1880s and 1890s produced both psychoanalysis and Coca-Cola as treatments for symptoms of neurosis. The traditional/classical and interpersonal/relational brands of psychoanalysis are compared with Coca- and Pepsi Colas. With this whimsy I introduce my present examination of the clinical panel discussion at the “Minding the Gap” conference of February 28, 2009, a discussion in which eminent psychoanalysts from both schools responded to the presentation of process material from an ongoing psychoanalytic treatment. Although differences in approach were amply in evidence, an unexpected consensus was also emergent around the centrality of enactment and around a shared sense of a recognizable clinical rh ythm.