Harold Frederick Searles developed his contributions to psychoanalysis based on his clinical experience with psychosis, especially schizophrenia. He also elaborated important theories on the typical psychic illness of borderline cases. This article presents and discusses the role of intersubjectivity in Searles’ clinical thinking. To do so, the text analyzed the paper “The Schizophrenic’s Vulnerability to the Therapist’s Unconscious Processes” (1958/1965a). After presenting some biographical data about the author and his style as a writer and analyst, the article focuses on the analysis of the aforementioned paper. The discussion concludes by pointing out the relations between Searles’ clinical thinking and some contemporary analytical proposals.
Key words:
Harold Searles; intersubjectivity; schizophrenia; psychoses