Self And Systems - Exploring Trends In Contemporary Self Psychology

The field of psychoanalytic self psychology has enjoyed a robust and fertile growth since its discovery and elaboration by Heinz Kohut in the 1970’s. From its earliest inception, self psychology radically changed the face of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy by both introducing novel ways of conceptualizing human development and the process of change, and by paving the way for innovative thinking linking the process of therapeutic growth to neuroscience and associated theories. The volume illuminates the major concepts of self psychology and their relevance to the behavioral sciences, as well as those whose theories draw on our contemporary understandings of the ways in which brain structure, mind and consciousness interface with one another. Of emphasis is the position of self psychological ideas vis-à-vis behavioral changes, neurobiology, neuropsychology, and other neurosciences.


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Introduction (Nancy VanDerHeide and William J. Coburn).


Part I: Contemporary Issues in Self Psychology.


1. Some Key Features in the Evolution of Self Psychology and Psychoanalysis (James L. Fosshage).


2. One Case, Four Theories: Finding Matthew (Nancy VanDerHeide).


3. The Evolution of the Psychology of the Self: Toward a Mature Narcissism (Mark J. Gehrie).


4. Trauma-Centered Psychoanalysis: Transforming Experiences of Unbearable Uncertainty (Doris Brothers).


5. Empathic Understanding: The Foundation of Self Psychological Psychoanalysis (Richard Geist).


6. On Ideals and Idealization (Andrew P. Morrison).


7. Psychoanalytic Self Psychology and Its Conceptual Development in Light of Developmental Psychology, Attachment Theory, and Neuroscience (Hans-Peter Hartmann).


Part II: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.


8. From Selfobjects to Dialogue: A Journey through the Intersubjective Field (Lynne Jacobs).


9. My Relational Self Psychology (Judith Guss Teicholz).


10. A Self-Psychological Approach to the Study of Biography: The Interplay of Narratives in Psychoanalysis and Biography (Sandra G. Hershberg).


11. Embracing the Limits of Psychoanalysis: A Dialogic Approach to Healing (Maxwell Sucharov).


12. Art and Self: A New Psychoanalytic Perspective on Creativity and Aesthetic Experience (George Hagman).


13. Selfobject as Dramatis Personae: Cultivating the Improvisational in Self Psychological Psychoanalysis (Philip A. Ringstrom).


14. Relational Trauma and the Developing Right Brain: An Interface of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology and Neuroscience (Allan N. Schore).


The Interface of Self Psychology, Infant Research and Neuroscience in Clinical Practice (Judith Rustin).


15. Self Psychology and the Modern Dance Choreographer (Carol M. Press).


Part III: Autobiographical Perspectives.


16. My Life with Self Psychology (Estelle Shane).


17. Intersubjective Systems Theory: A Fallibilist’s Journey (Donna M. Orange).


18. The Road to My (Self) Psychology (Ronald Bodansky).


19. From Self Psychology to Selves in Relationship: A Radical Process of Micro- and Macroexpansion in Conceptual Experience (Steven H. Knoblauch).


20. How Self Psychology Found Me (Paula B. Fuqua).


21. Theory is Personal (Allen M. Siegel).


22. Peeling the Onion: Understanding Layers of Treatment (Jacqueline Gotthold).


23. The Journey of a Psychoanalyst (Dorienne Sorter).


Index of Contributors).