Progress In Self Psychology V 9

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 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.

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.

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.

The premier volume in the Progress in Self Psychology Series was completed two years after Heinz Kohut's death in 1981. Hence, this volume has a unique status in the history of self psychology: it bears the imprint of Kohut while charting a course of theoretical and clinical growth in the post-Kohut era. Biographical reminiscences about Kohut (Strozier, Miller) and commentaries on Kohut's "The Self-Psychological Approach to Defense and Resistance" [chapter seven of How Does Analysis Cure?] (M. Shane, P. Tolpin, Brandchaft, Oremland) are juxtaposed with a section of self-psychological reassessments of interpretations (Basch, A. and P. Ornstein, Goldberg). Clinical papers cover the selfobject transferences (Hall, Shapiro), patient compliance (Wolfe), and the "self-pity response" (Wilson), while theoretical contributions present ideas of Stolorow, Bacal, White, and Detrick that are foundational to their subsequent writings. This volume helped to shape the theoretical and clinical agenda of self psychology in the decades following Kohut's death.

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 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 14 of Progress in Self Psychology, The World of Self Psychology, introduces a valuable new section to the series: publication of noteworthy material from the Kohut Archives of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. In this volume, "From the Kohut Archives" features a selection of previously unpublished Kohut correspondence from the 1940s through the 1970s. The clinical papers that follow are divided into sections dealing with "Transference and Countertransference," "Selfobjects and Objects," and " Schizoid and Psychotic Patients." As Howad Bacal explains in his introduction, these papers bear witness to the way in which self psychology has increasingly become a relational self psychology - a psychology of the individual's experience in the context of relatedness. Coburn's reconstrual of "countertransference" as an experience of self-injury in the wake of unresponsiveness to the analyst's own selfobject needs; Livingston's demonstration of the ways in which dreams can be used to facilitate "a playful and metaphorical communication between analyst and patient"; Gorney's examination of twinship experience as a fundamental goal of analytic technique; and Lenoff's emphasis on the relational aspects of "phantasy selfobject experience" are among the highlights of the collection. Enlarged by contemporary perspectives on gender and self-experience and a critical examination of "Kohut, Loewald, and the Postmoderns," Volume 14 reaffirms the position of self psychology at the forefront of clinical, developmental, and conceptual advance.