Overview of PSA History

Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (APP)
2018-19, 1st Block — Mondays, 8:00-9:15pm
Scot Gibson, MD

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October 15, 2018 — Kohut and Self-Psychology

[25 pages]

Shane, M.; Shane, E.; Gales, M. (1997) Excerpt from Ch2, “Essential Features and Origins of the Model” in Intimate Attachments: Toward a New Self Psychology. pp10-16.

Auchincloss, E. (2015) Ch12, “Self Psychology” in The Psychoanalytic Model of the Mind, American Psychiatric Publishing. pp219-236.

Heinz Kohut, originally from Austria, was based in Chicago. He wrote several influential papers through the 1950s and the 1960s which culminated in his landmark 1971 book The Analysis of the Self. Originally conceived as an elaboration of Freud’s work, his ideas fostered a new major school of psychoanalysis. Self Psychology described a new theoretical construct, the self, which had its own developmental trajectory, its own contributions to healthy function (including self-esteem, ambition, and ideals) and its own set of potential pathologies (most notably pathological narcissism). Self Psychology also developed a new set of clinical techniques for the clinician to employ, based on empathic attunement.

The Auchincloss, as usual, will give a workable overview of the salient points of Self Psychology. The excerpt from Shane, Shane, and Gales is basically a short list of the major features of the theory by practitioners who are themselves prominent Self Psychologists.