Social thirdness: Intersubjective conceptions of the experience of gender prejudice

In the face of movements like #me too and Time’s Up, clinicians are challenged to navigate the intricacies of socio-political multi-dimensionalities of prejudice and the ways prejudice weaves through various aspects of psychological work. In this paper, I suggest that the intersubjective experience of prejudice is a collapse of thirdness, a collapse of the dialectical recognition of sameness and difference, or self and other. Furthermore, leaning on principles of intersubjectivity and relational psychoanalysis, I also offer a refinement of the concept of thirdness in relation to prejudice by pointing to the need to bring into focus larger socio-political currents and layers of experience that are intricately woven into the fabric of thirdness, thus constituting a social thirdness. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding the clinical pertinence, as well as collapse and repair of social thirdness in the context of gender and sexuality. I will use several carefully disguised clinical examples to illustrate these ideas and their relevance to psychotherapeutic work.