Showing papers on "Self psychology published in 2005"

selfobject needs in Kohut's self psychology : Links with attachment, self- cohesion, affect regulation, and adjustment

Abstract: Seven studies examined the validity and usefulness of central constructs in Kohut’s self psychology: selfobject needs for mirroring, idealization, and twinship and avoidance of acknowledging these needs. These constructs were assessed with a new self-report measure that was found to be reliable, valid, and empirically linked with a variety of constructs in contemporary personality and social psychology. The findings supported and refined Kohut’s ideas about the independence of the 3 selfobject needs, the orthogonality between these needs and defensive attempts to avoid acknowledging them, the motivational bases of narcissism, and the contribution of selfobject needs to problems in interpersonal functioning, mental health, self-cohesion, and affect regulation. The findings reveal mutually beneficial conceptual links between Kohut’s self psychology and attachment theory and suggest ways in which Kohut’s theory can be studied empirically.

Self to Self: Selected Essays

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. A brief introduction to Kantian ethics 3. The genesis of shame 4. Love as moral emotion 5. The voice of conscience 6. A rational superego 7. Don't worry, feel guilty 8. Self to self 9. The self as narrator 10. From self psychology to moral philosophy 11. The centered self 12. Willing the law 13. Motivation by ideal 14. Identification and identity.

Accessing self-development through narrative approaches in child and adolescent psychotherapy.

Abstract: TOPIC: Narrative psychotherapy with children and adolescents. PURPOSE: To demonstrate the integration of developmental theory with narrative approaches to psychotherapy as a means of accessing self-development during childhood and adolescence. SOURCES: Published literature and the author's experience in using narrative therapy with an 8-year-old and his foster mother. CONCLUSIONS: When informed by developmental theory, narrative approaches can be used effectively with children and adolescents to assist them in constructing positive life stories that can influence their identity formation.

Affect and the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis.

Abstract: In connection with controversial IJP articles by Stern et al. and Fonagy on the interpretation of the repressed and the recovery of past memories, the author maintains that the affect that is inherent in positive transference is at the heart of therapeutic action. Points of view put forward in the controversy (based on neurobiological knowledge) are related to Freudian metapsychology, as well as to their precursors whose scope was necessarily limited by a lack of access to more recent scientific discoveries. The author demonstrates metapsychological elements of therapeutic action inherent in the intersubjective relationship, especially identification, manifested in introjection and empathy. He describes cognitive development as spontaneously blossoming from the affective nucleus, and he explains the neuroscientific bases of this step forward. The classic (interpretative) psychoanalytic method makes up the cognitive superstructure necessary for the organisation of the mind that has sprung from the affective substructure. As a primary factor in psychic change, interpretation is limited in effectiveness to pathologies arising from the verbal phase, related to explicit memories, with no effect in the pre-verbal phase where implicit memories are to be found. Interpretation--the method used to the exclusion of all others for a century--is only partial; when used in isolation it does not meet the demands of modern broad-spectrum psychoanalysis, as the clinical material presented illustrates.

The Healing Relationship in Gestalt Therapy: A Dialogic/Self Psychology Approach [Book Review]

Abstract: Review(s) of: The Healing Relationship in Gestalt Therapy: A Dialogic/Self Psychology Approach, by Richard Hycner and Lynne Jacobs (1995), xxiii and 261 pp., ISBN 0 939266 25 3, New York: The Gestalt Journal Press, Inc, AUD$58.00 (includes GST).

Self Psychology: An Introduction

Abstract: Chapter 1 In the Beginning Chapter 2 The Reformulation of the Concept of Narcissism Chapter 3 The Self and Self Object Concepts Chapter 4 How Seld Psychology Conceives of Psychological Growth and Therapeutic Action Chapter 5 Psychopathology: Disturbance and Disorders of Self Experience Chapter 6 Clinical Process Section Chapter 7 Intersubjectivity Chapter 8 Motivational Systems Theory Chapter 9 Self Psychology's View of Aggression Chapter 10 Self Psychology's Contributions to the Evolution of Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice

Early trauma and narcissism-autism bipolarity.

Abstract: The analyst makes a series of considerations taken--a posteriori--from the analysis of a small number of patients. These patients have saved themselves from an early narcissistic catastrophe by developing precocious mental processes, while affective relationships rudimentarily repeat the impact with the original trauma. Primitive defences, essentially denial and vertical splitting, dissociate the tear in the psyche and structure a 'narcissism-autism bipolarity', revealed in aspects of the character which oblige the patient to automatically repeat a single matrix of experience. In therapy, it is necessary to construct a 'first time of the trauma', by finding and linking threads of the primary relationship and strengthening them in the analytic relationship. This reconstruction of the background, a screen to project what had originally been rejected, is the prerequisite for coming out, in deferred action, from the hold of the pathological identifications. The author dedicates particular attention to the undifferentiated background, the nature-environment torn by the trauma, and to the need to reconstruct this fabric of experience in the analytical relationship, as a fundamental element to the recomposition of the dissociated nuclei. In the clinical case, the analyst describes in particular how the analyst's words encounter an unbridgeable gap, a failure in the capacity for representation when opening the autistic nucleus. Through a regression lasting for about a year, a patient was able to live the experience of 'primitive agonies' and that of an unbearable helplessness and, at the same time, was able to feel how the analyst supported her sense of existence. Subsequently, the patient was able to give shape, through visual images, to deep states of being and start the process of metabolising and symbolising the trauma.

The role of the bereavement group in the face of 9/11: a self-psychology perspective.

Abstract: The sudden traumatic loss of a spouse equates to an assault on self and the loss of both an internal and external self-object. Mourning requires compensatory self-objects to help in the restoration of self and in the creation of new self-structure. The catastrophe of 9/11 not only assaulted thousands with unanticipated traumatic loss, but also devastated the usual networks of support. In this light, the bereavement group became a valuable venue for self-restoration and recovery. In her group work with 9/11 corporate and uniformed service widows, the author applies a self-psychology perspective that considers that empathic immersion not only affords safety and stabilization, but the opportunity to have self-object needs met in a process that restores and develops self-structure. She proposes the bereavement group as a cohesive self-object milieu serving mirroring, twinship, and idealizing needs. Drawing upon clinical examples, she illuminates the capacity of the group to establish safety, regulate affect, reduce isolation and shame, rekindle memory, and foster coping skills. As such, the group affords a restoration of the assaulted self, an integration of the loss, and an emerging redefinition of self.

Conflict in contemporary clinical work: a self psychological perspective.

Abstract: The authors review the history of controversy regarding conflict versus deficit. They suggest that conflict, when conceptualized within the theory of self psychology, may arise in one of two ways, ...

The Application of Self Psychology to Therapeutic Camps

Abstract: Camp programs provide children and adolescents with vital opportunities to grow and are recognized as effective social work interventions. Children and adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) are at risk to experience psychosocial difficulties, which may result in difficulty attending regular camps. Self psychology can increase our understanding of these children's camp experiences, because of its focus on the individual's subjectivity and interactions throughout the lifespan and in therapeutic relationships. This paper extends the application of self psychology to therapeutic summer camps with children who have learning disabilities, illustrated through examples. The paper concludes with practice principles.

Moments of Therapeutic Impasse: Commentary on Jody Messler Davies's “Whose Bad Objects Are We Anyway? Repetition and Our Elusive Love Affair with Evil”

Abstract: Davies contributes to the development of relational theory by formulating and illustrating what occurs during especially difficult moments in an analytic exchange. In understanding enactments, Davies importantly underscores the contribution of both the analyst's and patient's “bad objects.” This author attempts to build bridges between Davies' language and concepts anchored in object relations theory and this author's language and concepts based in contemporary or relational self psychology, including the integration of cognitive psychology. In addition, this author delineates the use of the “empathic,” “othercentered,” and “analyst's self” listening/experiencing perspectives to explicate the case material and to provide alternative understandings and pathways for psychoanalytic work. The thesis set forth is that the use of different listening/experiencing perspectives expands choice for the analyst when working in difficult moments of the clinical exchange.

The self and analytic technique

Abstract: As psychoanalytic theory has evolved from the language of ego and drives to the growth and development of the self, the theory of technique has not shifted accordingly. This article begins with a historical survey of the theoretical movement leading to the current emphasis on the self. The argument is then advanced that this theoretical shift requires a correlative change in technique. A theory of psychoanalytic technique is then described that emanates from the analytic goal of restructuring the self. The centerpiece of the proposed technical approach is the application of Winnicott’s concept of potential space to the analytic process. The argument is that Winnicott’s notion provides psychoanalytic therapy with a theory of technique devised specifically for the creation of new aspects of the self.

A View from Developmental Systems Self Psychology: Discussion of Joseph Newirth's Paper, “A Case Study of Power and the Eroticized Transference–Countertransference”

Abstract: The clinical case that centers on a female patient who presented with a generalized sense of despair, hopelessness, and shame is discussed. Infant research, child development, neurobiology, trauma research, and nonlinear dynamic systems theory are employed in recontextualizing concepts of defense, resistance, dissociation, development, and therapeutic action. Specific positive new experiences, emergent from within the analytic dyad, lead to the development of consolidated, integrated self-states and a securely consolidated, intimate attachment to the other, which proved mutative.

Loewald's approach to psychoanalytic theory.

Abstract: The author suggests that part of the legacy of Hans Loewald is the nature of his approach to psychoanalytic theory. Loewald carefully considered and selectively utilized the work of theorists from a number of psychoanalytic schools of thought: id psychology, object relations theory, ego psychology, self psychology, and the interpersonal tradition. In addition, he helped pave the way for the current widespread interest in intersubjectivity, and also positioned himself in relation to those who embraced hermeneutics. Through all of this, he maintained a skeptical attitude, embodied in his belief in the complexity of the phenomena to be explored and his commitment to the perspective that psychoanalytic ideas should be open to revision.

The fundamental importance of simple operational definitions of introspection and empathy

Abstract: Instead of asking why psychoanalysis has lost its central position in mental health, one might marvel at its longevity when considering that psychoanalysts have not attained agreement about basic methods for observing unconscious mentation, either their own or that of others. Ambiguity abounds regarding the operations involved in, and the usefulness of, introspection, and even more so of empathy. Simple operational definitions of introspection and empathy are proposed in this article, definitions that are sufficiently abstract to transcend particular theories of mental organization (e.g., ego psychology, object relations, and self psychology) and concrete enough to be practicable.

A syndrome of errant sexuality – and the self

Abstract: Sexual activity can be viewed as a service for the self. Addictive, perverse and aversive devices mostly build an aggregate. I will present self-psychological and other views for understanding such an aggregation of errant sexuality. In the course of the development of culture, sexuality has developed a variety of functions. Self-psychology views sexual activity as a device for establishing and/or repairing coherence and vitality of the self. In the present paper, I will posit perverse action as being part of a conglomerate – consisting of addictive, perverse and aversive features as different but interdependent appearances of sexual life. Fundamental to developing and sustaining deviant sexuality, as perverse activity, is sexualisation. A vertical split is often described. The individual psychodynamic may be featured by addictive and aversive attributes. Addictive, perverse and aversive behaviours are viewed as part of narcissistic behaviour disorders. Self-psychologically informed features of t...

A case of diaper fetishism

Abstract: Some people cannot obtain satisfaction from ordinary sexual relationships; instead they prefer alternative methods. They are referred to in psychiatric terminology as paraphiliacs. Fetishism is a type of paraphilia in which a person is sexually attracted to objects and some body parts. Most fetishists do not intend to cause harm to other people, but may have problems when others become involved in the problem. Underlying personality disorders extending through childhood are thought to be the source of the etiology. Perverted people do not wish to change their behavior pattern. They never seek treatment from a therapist. Psychological issues obviously play a crucial role in determining the choice of paraphilia and the underlying meaning of the sexual acts. Psychodynamic models (object relations theory, self psychology, drive theory) can shed light on the meaning of a perversion. In this case report, a 22- year-old man with diaper fetishism is presented. When family dynamics are considered, the mother has been described as psychologically distant from her son. The fetish object was recognized during childhood at around the age of four. During puberty, the fetish object became sexually attractive. Our patient exhibited his first perverted behavior when he was six years old. Later, he could control this behavior. At the age of twelve, the perverted behavior became sexually arousing. This paper emphasizes the diaper fetishism case through the patient's past psychiatric and medical history. Diaper fetishism is discussed in the light of forensic, cognitive and psychodynamic theories.

Psychotherapy with Alcoholic Patients

Abstract: This paper demonstrates how use of the empathic mode in outpatient psychotherapy helped an alcoholic patient reduce his denial of the severity of his illness. Both the general psychoanalytic literature and, in particular, the self psychology literature concerning treatment of alcoholics is reviewed and evaluated. This paper also examines in depth how the empathic mode functions to promote selfobject transferences, which facilitate internalization processes that may lead to a reduction in the alcoholic patient's need to rigidly maintain his denial of the illness. The complexity of the relationship between alcoholism self-help groups and the professional psychotherapy community is also explored.

On being shot awake and the dreams that foresaw it: a transpersonal self psychology view of ptsd recovery

Abstract: Using excerpts from an autobiographical manuscript (Schavrien, 1993), along with self psychological theory, the author sorts out both having been shot in the face and having foreseen the incident in precognitive dreams. She uses these experiences to constitute a case history that expands the parameters of self psychology into transpersonal realms. She particularly expands the mirroring dynamic such that, not just a person, but also a community, culture, landscape, or deity can mirror negatively or positively, bringing harm or healing. As a psychotherapist specializing in Post Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD) who was then stricken with it, she tracks the shattering and reconstitution of self—from spiritual emergency to spiritual emergence. Near midnight, on the brink of April Fool's Day in 1986, I was mugged and shot in the face. A series of dreams led up to this mugging. I had been working with a spiritual guide and paying close attention to dreams; the goal was to make my 40th birthday, which would arrive on April 4 th , a watershed birthday. The dreams, as it turned out, not only led up to this mugging but foresaw both the shooting and my recovery from it. The recovery entailed a fulfilling of the goals I had set for my 40th—but these were accomplished by way of challenges, choices and events that would have seemed, before the fact, hideous, wondrous and, on the whole, bizarre. In this essay, the experiential account of these matters is at the core. In other words, this is a case history that sets the client's voice (my own from back then and also recently, in a retrospective view) above theoretical filters and inferences. The assumption is that no theory can do justice to the richness of an experiential skein, but that, on the other hand, some theoretical filters can illuminate at least a slice of the experience. The theory may, in turn, profit from the experiential account, which forces a broadening and deepening to fully accommodate that account. To validate this approach, I invoke William James, e.g. Varieties of Religious Experience (1961) and Radical Empiricism (1912), and case history theorists such as Sigmund Freud and Heinz Kohut, who used their own material in Interpretation of Dreams (1900) and The Case of Mr. Z. (Strozier, 2001, p. 14) respectively. Two theorists are immediately relevant to the events in a period just before, during, and for about 7 years after the mugging. I am building on James' (1961) approach to conversion experiences and on Kohut's (1984, 1985) self psychological theories, especially as the latter bear on the shattering of self by way of traumatic impact. Send inquiries about this article to Judy Schavrien, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Global Programs, at

A Brief Treatment with a Posttraumatic Stress Disordered Patient—A Self Psychological Perspective

Abstract: Treatment of posttraumatic stress disordered patients has focused predominantly on symptom removal. The assumption is that once the symptoms of stress are alleviated, the individual can return to a previous level of functioning. This focus overlooks the psychological importance of the unique and permanent effects that traumatic stress can have on the way individuals experience themselves and the world. This brief paper contributes to an understanding of the importance of psychoanalytic treatment in helping a patient understand her longstanding need for preoccupation with thoughts of destruction and how this need prolonged her thinking about the 9/11 tragedy. As her understanding proceeded, the patient’s preoccupation with the suicide attacks diminished as did her negative preoccupations in general.

The unacknowledged knowledge and the need for a sanity-confirming selfobject.

Abstract: This paper deals with a specific variation of therapeutic disruptions in which the patient’s inner experience in unacknowledged The unfulfilled need of acknowledgement brings about intense distress and unmanageable pain, to the extent of making the patient question his or her own sanity It is our understanding that the patient is craving for reappropriation of confiscated parts of his or her innermost self This is communicated in the transference by not being able to tolerate the therapist’s separate psychological matrix The therapist is required to suspend his or her own subjective experience temporarily, hereby permitting the exclusivity of the patient’s subjectivity When the therapist is capable of meeting these extreme demands, the patient’s need of a “sanity-confirming” selfobject is answered, thus enabling restoration via acknowledging his or her knowledge Heinz Kohut, the founder of self psychology, delineates in his third book (Kohut, 1984) how the spontaneously established selfobject transference is bound to be disrupted, time and again, by the therapist’s “unavoidable, yet only temporary and thus non-traumatic empathic failures—that is, his “optimal failures” (p 66) It is the therapist’s duty in such incidents of disruption, indicated by the patient’s withdrawal, to search for any mistake he might have made Kohut, as a rule, recommends that once a mistake is recognized the therapist should first acknowledge it nondefensively and then give the patient a “noncensorious interpretation” of the dynamics of his withdrawal Kohut further argues that the therapist’s faulty responses become grist for the

Psychoanalytic perspectives on substance use and antisocial personality disorder

Abstract: Psychoanalysis and related psychodynamic psychotherapies have historically had a limited engagement with substance use and antisocial personality disorders. This in part reflects an early preoccupation with 'transference neuroses' and in part reflects later de-emphasis of diagnosis and focus on therapeutic process. Nonetheless, psychoanalytic perspectives can usefully inform thinking about approaches to treatment of such disorders and there are psychoanalytic constructs that have specific relevance to their treatment. This paper reviews some prominent strands of psychoanalytic thinking as they pertain to the treatment of substance abuse and antisocial personality disorders. It is argued that, while Freudian formulations lead to a primarily pessimistic view of the prospect of treatment of such disorders, both the British object relations and the North American self psychology traditions suggest potentially productive approaches. Finally the limited empirical evidence from brief psycho dynamically informed treatments of substance use disorders is reviewed. It is concluded that such treatments are not demonstrably effective but that, since no form of psychotherapy has established high efficacy with substance use disorders, brief psychdynamic therapies are not necessarily of lesser value than other treatments and may have specific value for particular individuals and in particular treatment contexts.

Keeping the chaos in : the application of self psychology in the treatment of childhood functional faecal retention

Abstract: This study presents the possible contribution that self psychology might make to understanding, and guiding the treatment of; childhood functional faecal retention. A discussion of self psychology's theoretical perspective on childhood development is provided, including specific reference to the central theoretical issues 0 f optimal responsiveness and mutualand self-regulation and how these manifest within the psychotherapeutic process. A case study provides the vehicle for the discussion ofthe applicability and relevance of the central self psychological tenets to the psychotherapeutic treatment of functional faecal retention in childhood. It tentatively concludes that self psychological theory may be useful in informing and structuring the treatment of children with retentive encopresis, and may be especially useful in conjunction with potentially invasive medically and surgically based interventions.

The Selfobject in the Age of Technology

Abstract: The author considers self-psychology concepts including the selfobject and influences on self-esteem in the observation and exploration of the significance patients assigned to their cellular telephones, computers, and other electronic communication devices. The intrusion of these devices in sessions and their presence in the patients’ lives is explored.