Two clinical models have been dominant in psychoanalysis: first, the clas- sical paradigm, the view of the analyst as an objective mirror. The inter- personal turn in psychoanalysis led to a second view of the analyst as an intersubjective participant-observer. Participant-observation, in its broad- est sense, refers to the clinical perspectives of interpersonal psychoanalysis, self-psychology, relational analysis, intersubjectivity theory, social con- structivism, and some aspects of contemporary Freudian analysis, all of which, despite their many differences, share a clinical focus on the analy- sis of the interpsyche (the social mind). However, an evolutionary shift in psychoanalytic consciousness has been taking place. A newly emerging, or more accurately, reemerging third paradigm, coparticipant inquiry, represents a shift in analytic clinical the- ory. This is a major shift, with profound clinical implications (which are examined throughout the book). Coparticipant inquiry, as a unique form of clinical participation, is marked by a radical emphasis on patients’ and analysts’ analytic equality, emotional reciprocity, psychic symmetry, and relational mutuality. The concept of coparticipant inquiry builds upon and extends the concepts of inquiry of the two previous models of psychoana- lytic praxis. This book draws upon and is developed from arguments advanced in Fiscalini (1988, 1990, 1991, 1994a,b). Part 1, in particular (chapters 1–3), is a study and exploration of coparticipant inquiry as an evolving clinical paradigm. My aim is to delineate its salient characteristics and to articu- late its radical advantages over the other models of analytic therapy. Coparticipant inquiry integrates the individualistic focus of the classical tradition and the social focus of the participant-observer viewpoint, form- ing, as it were, a third clinical paradigm. Preface ix