Dr. Soni will trace the contemporary psychoanalytic concept of the “field” to its origins in the 1950 – 70s within two distinct traditions: the Interpersonal analysts of the William Alanson White Institute and the analysts of the Rio de la Plata in Argentina and Uruguay. He will argue that both groups drew on the social scientific thought of their time to develop complex models of the analytic process that foregrounded the reciprocal, unconscious influence of patient and analyst upon one another. By reconstructing these lineages, Dr. Soni aims to articulate some alternatives to key features of the contemporary field perspectives that draw on Bionian thinking.