Philip M. Bromberg

The late Philip M. Bromberg (1931-2020) was a Training and Supervising Analyst and Faculty member of the William Alanson White Institute, and Adjunct Clinical Professor of Psychology at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. He was Emeritus Co-Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and an Editorial Board member of Psychoanalytic Dialogues and Psychoanalytic Inquiry.
In addition to his numerous journal articles, Dr. Bromberg was most widely recognized as author of Standing in the Spaces: Essays on Clinical Process, Trauma, and Dissociation (1998), Awakening the
Dreamer: Clinical Journeys (2006), and his last book published by Routledge, The Shadow of the Tsunami: and the Growth of the Relational Mind (2011).

In addition to his numerous journal articles, Dr. Bromberg is most widely recognized as author of Standing in the Spaces: Essays on Clinical Process, Trauma, and Dissociation (1998), Awakening the Dreamer: Clinical Journeys (2006), and his newest book published by Routledge, The Shadow of the Tsunami: and the Growth of the Relational Mind (2011).

Understanding the nature of the analytic relationship and how to facilitate enduring personality growth, particularly in patients considered “difficult,” has been central to Philip Bromberg’s interest for many years. In his writing and teaching he has explored the nature of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis as process-based rather than content-based, and has developed the clinical and conceptual implications of working with dissociative processes as a major factor in accounting for why patients improve and why they don’t. He offers the view that working with dissociation as an inherent part of every analytic relationship creates a space and a spirit where new and spontaneously fresh ways of thinking and being can emerge. Further, it gives an analyst a different lens through which to look at and engage seemingly intractable clinical phenomena such as the residue of early developmental trauma, “resistance to interpretation” and so-called therapeutic impasses.

Selected Publications: 

Bromberg, P. M. (2008), “Grown-up” words: An interpersonal/relational perspective on unconscious fantasy. Psychoanal. Inq., 28:131-150.

Bromberg, P. M. (2008), “Mentalize THIS!”: Dissociation, enactment, and clinical process. In E. Jurist, A. Slade, & S. Bergner, Eds. Mind to Mind: Infant Research, Neuroscience, and Psychoanalysis.New York: Other Press, pp. 414-434.

Bromberg, P. M. (2009), Multiple self-states, the relational mind, and dissociation: A psychoanalytic perspective. In: Dissociation And The Dissociative Disorders: DSM-V and beyond, ed. P. F. Dell & J. A. O’Neil. New York: Routledge, pp. 637-652.

Bromberg, P. M. (2009), Truth, human relatedness, and the analytic process: An interpersonal/relational perspective. Internat. J. Psychoanal., 90: 347-361.

Bromberg, P. M. (2010), Minding the dissociative gap. Contemp. Psychoanal., 46:19-31.

Bromberg, P. M. (2010), The nearness of you: Navigating selfhood, otherness, and uncertainty. In: Knowing, Not-Knowing and Sort-of-Knowing: Psychoanalysis and the Experience of Uncertainty, ed. J. Petrucelli. London: Karnac, pp. 22-45.

Bromberg, P. M. (2010), Commentary on Carola M. Kaplan’s “Navigating Trauma in Joseph Conrad’s Victory: A Voyage from Sigmund Freud to Philip M. Bromberg.” Psychoanal. Dial., 20:449-455.

Bromberg, P. M. (2011), The Gill/Bromberg Correspondence. Psychoanal. Dial., 21:243-252.

Bromberg, P. M. (2011), “Afterword” to the Gill/Bromberg Correspondence. Psychoanal. Dial., 21:264-267.

Bromberg, P. M. (2012), Stumbling along and hanging-in: If this be technique, make the most of it! Psychoanal. Inq., 32:3-17.

Bromberg, P.M. (2012), Credo. Psychoanal. Dial., 22: 273-278.