Showing papers on "Self psychology published in 1987"

Psychoanalytic Treatment: An Intersubjective Approach

Abstract: Principles of Psychoanalytic Exploration. Reflections on Self Psychology. Transference: The Organization of Experience. Bonds That Shackle, Ties That Free. Affects and Selfobjects. Developmental Failure and Psychic Conflict. Thoughts on Psychoanalytic Cure. Treatment of Borderline States. Treatment of Psychotic States.

Heinz Kohut's self psychology: an overview.

Abstract: In the 16 years since its inception, self psychology has provided a comprehensive theory of psychopathology and treatment. It has articulated a new group of developmental needs and transferences: mirroring, idealizing, and alter ego. The failure of parental empathy to meet those needs during childhood results in the inability to develop intrapsychic structures that can reliably regulate self-esteem and calm the self, leaving the person overly dependent on those in the surround to provide those functions. Treatment requires careful understanding of the early failures and provides an environment in which the intrapsychic structures may belatedly and effectively develop.

Humanizing the narcissistic style

Abstract: It sacrifices fulfillment to driven achievement, self-worth to praise from others, and the joy of human connectedness to superficial, manipulative relationships. Johnson's carefully conceived integrative psychoanalytic developmental theory will enable therapists to make sense of the array of symptoms seen in character disorders and character styles so that an eclectic treatment approach may be pursued with the guidance of a unified theory. This is the second book in a series that began with Characterological Transformation.

British object-relations theorists and self psychology: some critical reflections.

Abstract: This survey of six major British object-relations theorists examines the ways in which their ideas anticipated self psychology. The work of Ian Suttie is first considered as a relatively undiscovered but significant member of this group. The work of W.R.D. Fairbairn, Harry Guntrip, Michael Balint, and D.W. Winnicott demonstrates the introduction and development of many concepts which reflect essential theory in self psychology, none of which has been recognized by Kohut or his followers. The British theorists, however, failed to systematize a psychology of the self in the way Kohut did, largely because they were unable to dissociate their theories from the prevailing moralistic view of narcissism. The psychological legitimacy of selfobject relations throughout life could not be placed at the centre of theory, since maturity required that 'narcissistic' object relations be relinquished. The difficulty which these theorists had in disengaging their concepts from instinct theory is regarded as a less important determinant preventing them from developing a comprehensive self psychology. A review of Melanie Klein's work suggests interesting parallels with Kohut's work, but reveals essential incompatibilities in basic theoretical assumptions with regard to the nature of the relationship between the infant's self and its early environment. Some ways in which the work of these object-relations theorists can enrich self-psychological theory and practice are suggested.

Children of Alcoholism: The Struggle for Self and Intimacy in Adult Life

Abstract: In this sensitive and richly rewarding book Barbara L. Wood, a clinician with many years' experience working with adult children of the chemically dependent, gives clinicians informed and practical advice on how to treat the damaged self of these individuals. She offers strategies for intervention, along with step-by-step principles that tell the therapist how best to create an environment to help patients.

Self Psychology as Feminist Theory.

Abstract: In his last works, psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut, the chief proponent of a new "psychology of the self," upholds empathy as an alternative to the "knowledge values" and "independence values" of "Western Man" and "Western Civilization. "1 Threatened by the "narcissistic rage that might trigger atomic holocaust," humanity, he thinks, must develop more compassion.2 Whereas other psychologies validate goals of individuation and autonomy, he claims that a more interdependent model of maturity is necessary for humanity to survive. Such characterizations may well sound familiar to those feminists who fear "Western Man" and his planetary effects. For example, Dorothy Dinnerstein ascribes the dangerous tendencies in Western civilization to the misogyny consequent on mother-raised psychologies.3 However, Kohut uses the generic "Man" unselfconsciously and

Parenting a damaged child: mourning, regression, and disappointment.

Abstract: This paper is an examination of the long-term parenting experiences of parents who have given birth to CNS damaged infants. In particular, the focus is on the mourning, regression, rage, and depression that frequently attend these parents throughout their lives and can become pathological and pathogenic interferences with the provision of good-enough parenting. Several clinical vignettes were presented, each of which illustrated the usefulness of different psychoanalytic clinical theories about normality and pathology of parenting and parent-child interaction. The now-classical contribution of Solnit and Stark (Mourning and the Birth of a Defective Child, 1962) is reviewed along with Benedek's and others' psychoanalytic theories about normal parenting. The thinking of these writers is within the framework of structural/libidinal theory and seems to be useful in describing certain parenting problems that concern the mourning and regressive aspects of parenting. However, it was proposed that some of the adaptive coping and pathology encompassed by Solnit and Stark's explanations is not comfortably illuminated by the structural clinical theory of conflict and drives. Freud's discussion (1917) compares mourning and melancholia, which he differentiated as related but dynamically distinct clinical phenomena. This work is briefly recalled as an earlier point in theory building where structural theory was not sufficient to explain clinical depression and rage that exceeds normal mourning (as in Freud's melancholia). It is felt that an additional theoretical perspective on parenting provided by self psychology can fill in some of the gaps left by structural theory explanations. The self psychology perspective is particularly helpful with understanding the rage, ambivalence, and chronic depression often experienced by parents of damaged children. According to this perspective, the damaged child is a disappointing selfobject for the parent, and the parent's self organization will give him the resources to cope adaptively or to develop narcissistic pathology. Three types of intrapsychic problems for a parent are described: mourning the lost object, the fantasied perfect child; experiencing and recovering from regression to early identifications with his own parents; withstanding tension and regulating one's self (experiencing chronic depression and rage) when confronted with a great disappointment in a selfobject (represented by the damaged child). It is important when designing intervention strategies in a hospital or pediatric clinic setting to clarify which type of problem is the major focus of the parent's struggle.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Object Relations, the Self, and the Group: A Conceptual Paradigm

Abstract: This established text presents a framework for integrating group psychology with psychoanalytic theories of object relations, the ego and the self, through the perspective of general systems theory. It defines and discusses key constructs in each of the fields and illustrates them with practical examples.

Rules of clinical understanding in classical psychoanalysis and in self psychology: a comparison.

Abstract: This paper compares the rules that govern clinical understanding in classical psychoanalysis and in self psychology. The rules of understanding in the two systems are fundamentally different. Self psychology interprets causes and relies on interpretive rules similar to those used in allegory. Classical psychoanalysis investigates reasons and seeks to uncover the patient's own interpretive system. Self psychology refinds its own theory in the relation between elements disguised in the manifest content of patients; productions. Classical psychoanalysis seeks to open up manifest content. Where self psychology reiterates theory in its interpretations, classical interpretations move away from theoretical generalizations toward specific fantasy-memory constellations. Theory, in self psychology, organizes directly the content of interpretations; theory in classical psychoanalysis organizes a technique of exploration and furnishes general sequences according to which data can be understood. This paper also sugges...

Formulations of Self and Family Systems

Abstract: The observations of systemic family therapy and self psychology fit together conceptually because both rest upon systems theory. Underlying assumptions common to both fields of inquiry are reviewed. The concept of the self and its parts is examined, with discussion of its systems properties featuring stability and change. Parallels are noted between (a) healthy self-functioning and healthy family functioning; (b) self-formation processes and family developmental processes; and (c) sense of self and family paradigm. It is suggested that there are isomorphic patterns in these formulations that allow us to switch back and forth easily between the individual and the family. Two clinical case examples are also included.

Psychoanalytic perspectives on child abuse

Abstract: This paper examines the application of selected concepts from classical psychoanalysis, ego psychology, object relations theory, and self psychology to the assessment and treatment of child abuse. Child maltreatment is conceptualized as deriving, in part, from impaired symbiotic and separation-individuation experiences. The role of certain defense mechanisms employed by the formerly abused parent in perpetuating intergenerational cycles of abuse is explored. Disturbances in the development of the “nuclear self” (as postulated by Kohut) in abusive parents are considered. Fairbairn's model of the inner object world is used to illuminate scapegoating processes. The concept of “protectiveness” is discussed in relation to the abused child's use of primitive defenses and inhibition of autonomy. Countertransference issues are viewed in relation to the problem of workers' “burnout.”

Self psychology and group therapy

Abstract: This paper illustrates how the theories of Heinz Kohut elucidate the curative aspects of group treatment. Group therapy is an ideal milieu in which mirroring, idealizing and alterego transferences can be experienced and worked through. Transmuting internalizations, or psychic structure building, occur when optimal frustration of these needs can be provided by available selfobjects. In group therapy a patient can use the group-as-a-whole, the individual members as well as the leader as potential selfobjects. With the help of individual sessions to reflect on group encounters, a patient can gain a more fully integrated therapeutic experience.

The transference neurosis from the viewpoint of self psychology

Abstract: (1987). The transference neurosis from the viewpoint of self psychology. Psychoanalytic Inquiry: Vol. 7, Transference Neurosis Evolution or Obsolescence, pp. 535-550.

Book Rivew: Kohuts Legacy: Contributions to Self Psychology:

Abstract: There are many more details, but this is Winson's basic model. He is, by his own program, then faced with the problem of empirical testing. Here his discussion siniply dissolves. He wants more neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, experiments with REhl sleep deprivation, studies of lower animals: \". . . as a result of these several lines of research, one hopes ant1 expects that in the course of time, measured perhaps in tens of years, the way the brain handles information during waking and sleeping behaviors will be revealed\" (p. 243). In addition, he wants further studies of dream content and its relation to life experiences. In brief, lie has no strategy for testing other than trying harder at what we are already doing. \\\\'inson's book has been widely read and reviewed. It sets on an atnbitious project, one at which Freud failed many years ago. In the course of the work, Winson first discards the essence of psychoanalysis, the dynamic significance of unconscious niental life. Then, although lie does come up with an interesting grand hypothesis that bridges cognitive psychology, evolutionary biology, and neurobiology (but, in spite of his assertion, no longer Freudian psychoanalysis), he fails to suggest even one new critical experiment or avenue of inquiry. However, we iilrcady knew the goiil wiis elusive and difficult; his effort is wc.11 worth reading. It is clear that if this program can be achieved, the time is not yet ripe. The question of whether, in theory, it can. ever be achieved remains a fascinating problem.