Progress In Self Psychology V 7

A special section of papers on the evolution, current status, and future development of self psychology highlights The Evolution of Self Psychology, volume 7 of the Progress in Self Psychology series. A critical review of recent books by Basch, Goldberg, and Stolorow et al. is part of this endeavor. Theoretical contributions to Volume 7 examine self psychology in relation to object relations theory and reconsider the relationship of psychotherapy to psychoanalysis. Clinical contributions deal with an intersubjective perspective on countertransference, the trauma of incest, and envy in the transference.

Volume 13 provides valuable examples of the very type of clinically grounded theorizing that represents progress in self psychology. The opening section of clinical papers encompasses compensatory structures, facilitating responsiveness, repressed memories, mature selfobject experience, shame in the analyst, and the resolution of intersubjective impasses. Two self-psychologically informed approaches to supervision are followed by a section of contemporary explorations of sexuality. Contributions to therapy address transference and countertransference issues in drama therapy, an intersubjective approach to conjoint family therapy, and the subjective worlds of profound abuse survivors. A concluding section of studies in applied self psychology round out this broad and illuminating survey of the field.

The fourth volume in the Progress in Self Psychology series continues to explore the theoretical yield and clinical implications of the wok of the late Heinz Kohut. Learning from Kohut features sections on "supervision with Kohut" and on the integration of self psychology with classical psychoanalysis. Developmental contributions examine self psychology in relation to constitutional factors in infancy. Clinical presentations focusing on optimum frustration and the therapeutic process and on the self-psychological treatment of a case of "intractable depression" elicit the animated commentary that makes this volume, like its predecessors, as enlivening as it is instructive.

The Widening Scope of Self Psychology is a watershed in the self-psychological literature, being a contemporary reprise on several major clinical themes through which self psychology, from its inception, has articulated its challenge to traditional psychoanalytic thinking. The volume opens with original papers on interpretation by eminent theorists in the self-psychological tradition, followed by a series of case studies and clinically grounded commentaries bearing on issues of sex and gender as they enter into analysis. Two thoughtful reexaminations of the meaning and treatment challenges of chronic rage are followed by clinical papers that focus, respectively, on mourning, alter ego transferences, resistance to change, and pathological identification. Applied analytic contributions and a review of Goldberg's The Prisonhouse of Psychoanalysis round out a collection that testifies not only to the widening scope of self psychology, but to its deepening insights as well.

The third volume in the distinguished Progress in Self Psychology series brings together the most exciting issues in a rapidly expanding field. Frontiers in Self Psychology is highlighted by sections dealing with self psychology and infancy and self psychology and the psychoses. Clinical contributions include several case studies along with a reconsideration of dream interpretation. Theoretical contributions span issues of gender identity, boundary formation, and the biological foundation of self psychology.

Postmodern Self Psychology, the last volume of the Progress in Self Psychology series under the editorship of Arnold Goldberg, charts the path of self psychology into the postmodern era of psychoanalysis. It begins with Goldberg's thoughtful consideration of the several tributaries of self-psychological thought in the decades after Kohut and continues with Mark Gehrie's elaboration of "reflective realism" as a self-psychological way out of epistemological quagmires about the "essential reality" of the analytic endeavor. Clinical contributions offer contemporary perspectives on clinical themes that engaged Kohut in the 1970s: a study of the effect of "moments of meeting" on systems of pathological accomodation; a reappraisal of empathy as a "bi-directional negation"; and an assessment of the diverse clinical phenomena that justify a prolonged "understanding only" phase of treatment. The theory section of Volume 18 comparably charts the movement of self psychology toward a postmodern sensibility. Contributors reappraise intersubjectivity theory as a contextualist treatment approach consistent with dynamic systems theory; return to Kohut's concept of selfobject relationships, with special attention to the separate subjective and intersubjective components of selfobject experiences; and develop one of Kohut's early ideas into a theory of "forward edge" transferences that strengthen normal self-development. In all, Volume 18 is a richly insightful progress report on the current status of self psychology and a fitting capstone to Arnold Goldberg's distinguished tenure as editor of the Progress in Self Psychology series.

Volume 11 begins with a timely assessment of self psychology and intersubjectivity theory, with original contributions by Carveth, Trop, and Powell, and a critical commentary by P. Ornstein. Clinical studies span the transferences, the complementarity of individual and group therapy, the termination phase, and multiple personality disorder. A special section of "dying and mourning" encompasses women professionals and suicide, the self psychology of the mourning process, and the selfobject function of religious experience with the dying patient. The volume concludes with theoretical and applied studies of personality testing in analysis, writer's block, "The Guilt of the Tragic Man," and the historical significance of self psychology. A testimony to the evolutionary growth of self-psychology, The Impact of New Ideas will be warmly welcomed by readers of the Progress in Self Psychology series.

Volume 12 of the Progress in Self Psychology series begins with reassessments of frustration and responsiveness, optimal and otherwise, by MacIsaac, Bacal and Thomson, the Shanes, and Doctors. The philosophical dimension of self psychology is addressed by Riker, who looks at Kohut's bipolar theory of the self, and Kriegman, who examines the subjectivism-objectivism dialectic in self psychology from the standpoint of evolutionary biology. Clinical studies focus on self- and mutual regulation in relation to therapeutic action, countertransference and the curative process, and the consequences of the negative selfobject in early character formation. A separate section of child studies includes a case study exemplifying a self-psychological approach to child therapy and an examination of pathological adaptation to childhood parent loss. With a concluding section of richly varied studies in applied self psychology, Basic Ideas Reconsidered promises to be basic reading for all students of contemporary self psychology.