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Psychoanalysis is concerned primarily with the intrasubjective and the intrapsychic, and what pertains to the "subjective" (inter- or intra-) presupposes reference to a subject differentiated on both the extra-psychic and intrapsychic levels, whereas that which pertains to the "personal" presupposes only reference to individuals who are differentiated on the extra-psychic level, but may not yet be entirely differentiated on the intrapsychic level.

The intersubjective/intrasubjective dichotomy often appears in the psychoanalytic literature against the background of another pair of opposites, interpersonal/intrapersonal. In reality, these two pairs of opposites cannot be superimposed.

In his study of early childhood, Donald Winnicott made important contributions to the study of the dynamics of the intersubjective/intrasubjective dichotomy by providing a deeper understanding of the "sense of the continuity of being" and the role of the self-object environment. On the other hand, "developmental" psychoanalysis has focused primarily on the issue of interpersonal relations between the baby and its interactive partners, and has been criticized on a metapsychological level.

The work of Daniel N. Stern, a student of René Spitz, is worthy of mention in that his concept of "affect attunement" seeks to show how a mechanism at the interpersonal level helps open access to the inter-subjectivity by which it is in fact determined. Another of Spitz's students, Robert N. Emde, has also carried out important work in this vein.

Nevertheless, a purely metapsychological approach is problematic here because it is hard completely to disregard a phenomenological point of view. Moreover, the functional mechanisms and modalities that lead from the interpersonal to the intrapsychic are as yet unknown.