222 Interpersonal Theory of Personality
of self and other) on the common metric articulated by the
SASB model (see also Henry, 1997). In our view, this adds
explanatory power for interpersonal theory to account for
individuals’ enduring tendencies to organize interpersonal
information in particular ways. Although the concept of
theimpact messageis extremely useful in identifying the
classes of covert cognitive, affective, and behavioral experi-
ences of individuals, it does not necessarily account for the
nature of individual differences in covert experiences. Ben-
jamin’s IPIRs provide a way to account for the unique and
enduring organizational tendencies that people bring to inter-
personal situations—experiences that may underlie their
covert feelings, impulses, interpretations, and fantasies in re-
lation to others. Interpersonal theory proposes that overt be-
havior is mediated by covert processes. Psychodynamic,
attachment, and cognitive theories converge with this asser-
tion, and they suggest that dyadic mental representations are
key influences on the subjective elaboration of interpersonal
input. In our opinion, Benjamin has advanced interpersonal
theory by incorporating mental representations explicitly into
the conception of the interpersonal situation.
Returning briefly to our clinical example, recall that the
patient consistently came into therapy reporting disappoint-
ments in her interpersonal relations. In telling her sad stories,
she communicated her need to be consoled and nurtured.
When she was asked to reflect on her own contributions to
her disappointments, she became sullen and withdrawn. This
reaction was a bid at negotiation, communicating a threat to
leave in an effort to reestablish a reciprocal pattern of satisfy-
ing responses from her therapist. Why was this happening,
given that the therapist attempted to provide recognition and
consolation of her hurt feelings? Despite good therapeutic in-
tentions, efforts to focus her attention on her own patterns
seemed unhelpful. There was a clue in her report of her sub-
jective covert experience. When the therapist turned the
focus toward the patient’s contributions to her relational dif-
ficulties, he was experienced as similar to her mother.The
proximal interpersonal field was no longer the primary
source of her experience. There was now a second, parataxic
integration of the situation that led to a covert experience that
was driven by previous lived interpersonal experiences that
now influenced the patient’s subjective experience; this be-
came the primary mediating influence on her overt behavior.
Despite her requests for help and consistent attendance in
therapy, the patient was having difficulty organizing her
experience of the therapist independently of her maternal
IPIR. In our view, this example demonstrates that noncom-
plementary reciprocal interpersonal responses in the proxi-
mal interpersonal field may indicate significantly divergent
experiences within the internal interpersonal field that can
best be described by integrating interpersonal theory’s struc-
tural models with concepts of mental representation.Development and MotivationAdding conceptions of dyadic mental representation is not
sufficient for a comprehensive interpersonal theory of per-
sonality. Sullivan (1964), Stern (1988), and others have sug-
gested that the contents of the mind are in some way the
elaborated products of lived interpersonal experience. A
comprehensive interpersonal theory must account for how
lived interpersonal experience is associated with the develop-
ment of mental representation. In our opinion, Benjamin has
provided the only comprehensive developmental approach to
evolve from interpersonal theory.
Using SASB as the descriptive anchor (Figure 9.2),
Benjamin (1993, 1996a, 1996b) has proposed three develop-
mentalcopy processesthat describe the ways in which early
interpersonal experiences are internalized. The first is identi-
fication,which is defined as treating others as one has been
treated; this is associated with the transitive SASB surface.
To the extent that individuals strongly identify with early
caretakers (typically parents), there will be a tendency to act
toward others in ways that copy how important others have
acted toward the developing person. The second copy
process is recapitulation,which is defined as maintaining a
position complementary to an IPIR; this is associated with
the intransitive SASB surface and can be described as react-
ingas ifthe IPIR were still there. The third copy process is
introjection,which is defined as treating the self as one has
been treated. This is associated with the introject SASB sur-
face and is related to Sullivan’s conceptions of “reflected
appraisals” as a source of self-personification.
Identification, recapitulation, and introjection are not in-
compatible with Kiesler’s conception of covert impact mes-
sages. In fact, we suggest that the proposed copy processes
can help account for individual differences in covert experi-
ence by providing developmental hypotheses regarding the
origins of a person’s enduring tendencies to experience par-
ticular feelings, impulses, cognitions, and fantasies in inter-
personal situations. For the patient described earlier, it seems
that her experience of the therapist as yelling and blaming re-
flects (in part) recapitulation of her relationship with her
mother. This in turn leads to a parataxic distortion of the
proximal interpersonal field in therapy and noncomplemen-
tary overt behavior.
Although the copy processes help to describe possible
pathways in which past interpersonal experience is internal-
ized into mental structures (IPIRs), it is still insufficient to ex-
plainwhyearly IPIRs remain so influential. The answer to