Self-centeredness and selflessness: A theory of self-based psychological functioning and its consequences for happiness.

The theoretical model presented in this paper emerged from several different disciplines. This model proposes that the attainment of happiness is linked to the self, and more particularly to the structure of the self. We support the idea that the perception of a structured self, which takes the form of a permanent, independent and solid entity leads to self-centered psychological functioning, and this seems to be a significant source of both affliction and fluctuating happiness. Contrary to this, a selfless psychological functioning emerges when perception of the self is flexible (i.e., a dynamic network of transitory relations), and this seems to be a source of authentic-durable happiness. In this paper, these two aspects of psychological functioning and their underlying processes will be presented. We will also explore the potential mechanisms that shape them. We will conclude with an examination of possible applications of our theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hermeneutics and psychopathology: Jaspers and Hillman.

The correlation between psychopathology and hermeneutics has long been at the forefront of philosophic discussion. In recent years a number of thinkers, particularly in France, have advanced the claim that all hermeneutic acts are themselves part of an intrinsic pathology which makes it impossible to arrive at neutral and binding interpretations. The so-called hermeneutics of suspicion has served to undermine those interpretive norms which guided the depth psychology coming out of Freud and Jung. This hermeneutic and semiotic anarchy derives its impetus from a misreading of the nature and scope of a general psychopathology. Rather than locating psychopathology under the more generic analysis of the self and its relation to the various modes of the encompassing, whether these modes pertain to the self or its world, the hermeneutics of suspicion equates psychopathology with the self in all of its dimensions. Any contrast between the authentic or inauthentic, or the normal and the abnormal, is held to impose a form of privileging on the vast fabric of a self which has no center or circumference. The epoch making work of Freud and Jung is distorted and their basic commitment to hermeneutic norms is undermined. This not only represents a profound misreading of the history of depth psychology but stands as a threat to the drive for transcendence which lives at the heart of the human self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Narratives and Culture: "Thickening" the Self for Cultural Psychotherapy.

The dominant framework for understanding selfhood in contemporary psychology has been one that privileges a highly individualistic conception of self. This is reflected in both the language and approaches of psychotherapy where the influence of contextual factors (factors outside of the individual) are given marginal consideration in order to maintain some type of 'objectivity' or 'neutrality' in counseling. We argue that an understanding of selfhood which does not take into account the 'relational' nature of selfhood as well as the cultural or historical context of the client, will likely alienate clients who do not view their self through the individualized lenses of (North American) psychology. In order to deal with this problem, we adopt an approach to cultural (and cross-cultural) psychology that views the self as a relational narrative. Such a narrative does not imply an unrestricted freedom to construct our self, but understands the limits to selfhood implied in the web of meanings constitutive of our culture and the web of relations from which our self emerges. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self psychology and the etiology of borderline personality disorder.

Describes borderline personality disorder (BPD) as arising from a restriction in the initial duality of merger and separateness in which the self is left dependent on the merged caregiver for cohesion. Such enfeeblement of self arises from a derailment of the formation of the nuclear self prior to age 3. BPD patients thus have no coherent self, and when threatened with fragmentation from some fissure in close relationships, react with panic and rage. Most characteristic of the defenses of BPD patients is splitting and the resultant idealization and devaluation within relationships. From a self psychology perspective, the BPD patient's self will grow by phase appropriate empathic responsiveness embedded in a matrix of idealizing, mirroring, and alter ego transferences. Treatment should focus on the transference that develops around the patient's striving for independence. A case illustration is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analytic psychology and gender role conflict: The development of the fragile masculine self.

There is a need to undertake a comprehensive approach to understanding gender specific challenges and solutions. This includes understanding the gender role related conflicts men experience. It also includes a reexamination of some of the long-held beliefs regarding men and masculinity including a gender identity socialized to conceptualize a sense of self that emphasizes independence to the exclusion of relational strivings. There is also the emphasis in male socialization to avoid the "feminine" in hopes that this will enhance the masculine identity. It is argued here that for many men, following this course of gender socialization has led to the development of a fragile masculine self. The fragile masculine self is conceptualized from an analytic psychology perspective, integrating aspects of intrapsychic development with psychosocial aspects of O'Neil's gender role conflict paradigm. Combining aspects of the intrapsychic with that of psychosocial forces leads to the development of a new model for conceptualizing and working with men in individual and group therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychoanalytic supervision and the need to be alone.

Argues that just as infants not left alone (in the marginal presence of their mothers) will not find their true selves, but will develop false selves with conformative tendencies (D. W. Winnicott, 1965), supervisees not left to discover their professional selves in the marginal presence of their supervisors will not develop true professional selves. A false self will then emerge in the place of an authentically experiencing one. This false self will conform to the perceived needs and demands of supervisors, teachers, and various clinical tests. Supervisors must balance the welfare of the patient with the professional developmental needs of the supervisee. A case study is presented as illustrative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self psychology and the analysis of the superego.

The thesis of this article is that self psychology can be construed as a superego psychology in that both involve an intensive study of the self-regulatory and self-evaluative functions of the mind and their precursors in early object relations. Kohut's clinical contribution can be redefined in terms of the structural model as the delineation of the regressive, pathological, and healthy methods through which the ego attempts to restore the approval of the superego. Kohut's grandiose self can be seen as a precursor of the ego ideal and his idealized parent imago as a precursor of conscience. Conflict between the ego ideal and the conscience constitutes a vital aspect of intrapsychic functioning which self psychology has neglected in its focus upon developmental arrest. Sexual and aggressive aims play an important role in regaining the approval of the superego through their unique capacity to evoke a sense of the omnipotence of the corporeal self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional uncertainty and social comparison.

An experiment was run to test an assumption, basic to social comparison theory, that evaluational uncertainty regarding some aspect of the self, such as an emotional experience, produces a desire to compare one's self with others. Under threat of a strong shock, 2 levels of uncertainty were induced. Cross-cutting this induction were treatments in which information about others due to undergo the same experience was manipulated. Following Schachter, the desire for comparison information was measured by the strength of S's affiliation tendency. The findings suggest that: (a) uncertainty does produce a desire to compare one's self with others, (b) the individual's uncertainty relative to available comparison persons will determine his comparison tendency, and (c) a discrepancy in position (in this case, emotionality) reduces the desire to compare. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The moral construction of the self.

Social constructionist theory has been criticized as being relativistic. This article addresses this criticism and draws out conclusions for the theory and for psychotherapy. It is suggested that a nonrelativistic basis for the self is its moral constitution and that people need to trust, make promises, and follow through on obligations in order to be in the society that is constructing them. These moral and ethical constituents of the socially constructed self are historically necessary without being universal. One important praxis affected by this conclusion is psychotherapy which, because its articulation of the constituents of self also constitutes them, becomes a moral and political praxis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self psychology since Kohut

The changes in psychoanalytic self psychology since its origination by Heinz Kohut are described as differences in three branches: the traditional, the intersubjective, and the relational. Each claims both a distinctiveness and a major influence within self psychology. These are described and contrasted. It is suggested that an effort to integrate all three is premature, and that they will continue to grow separately.     

Carl Rogers and Heinz Kohut: A historical perspective.

Earlier psychoanalytic thinkers, with their humanistic orientations, anticipated Heinz Kohut's theories and, therefore, contributed to the historical evolution of self psychology. Carl Rogers, a founder of humanistic psychology in the US, was a theorist who struggled with many of the same issues as Kohut. Rogers had new ways of looking at therapy, and especially at the therapeutic ambience, ways that foreshadowed the discoveries of Kohut. This article discusses areas of compatibility of the 2 theorists, such as their focus on empathy and the self, to encourage a rapprochement between humanistic psychotherapy and self psychology. Kohut revolutionized psychoanalysis by making it more humanistic. In that revolution, many of Rogers's empirically tested ideas were incorporated into a comprehensive psychoanalytic theory and clinical method. Because of the areas of mutual concerns and overlap, a fuller appreciation of Rogers's important ideas will be beneficial to self psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the dialectics of agency.

Traces the conceptual impasse that opposes free will and determinism to the dichotomy between subject and object, and to the limitations imposed by the thinking that underlies this division. Thinking rooted in the dialectics of subject and object transcends the impasse of the traditional debate and provides a more complete account of the experiential given of self and of free will. H. Bergson (1959) and M. Merleau-Ponty (1966) are used as examples of applying this dialectical thinking to the problem of freedom and determinism. This approach is then applied to the common analysis of the act of will (which divides will into motive, deliberation, choice, and action), and with the help of a clinical vignette, the self and free agency emerge naturally from the dialectical nature of the data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validating the measurement and structure of self-concept: Snapshots of past, present, and future research.

Although the study of self-concept has been a topic of great interest and much study in the social sciences for many decades, it is really only in the past 30 years that any fruitful expansion in knowledge of both its theoretical structure and its related measurement has been forthcoming. From three perspectives--past, present, and future--the author presents abbreviated and selected highlights of important construct validity findings related to this research and postulates possible trends and areas of self-concept research yet to be explored. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review essay: Narcissism and the interpersonal self.

Interpersonal approaches to the concept of a core self are explored in a review of Narcissism and the interpersonal self (John Fiscalini and Alan Grey, Editors) (see record 1993-97836-000). The role of self as system and self as identity--both the interpersonal, adaptive self and the personal, core self--is used to understand the evolution of the Interpersonal School and its varied approaches to narcissism. A formulation integrating subjectively and objectively based models is proposed whereby the "core" self may be understood as the totality and integrity between internal, personal self and reflected, interpersonal self. Narcissism involves an alienation of the reflected self from the inner self, which leads to a particular set of dynamics to regulate self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unconditional positive regard: The hidden paradox.

The Rogerian concept of unconditional positive regard is reexamined in terms of the self and its relation to overt behavior. C. Roger's (1959) postulation of a self that is separately but causally related to behavior reveals a hidden paradox: If the self is causally related to behavior, how can one respond conditionally to the latter without doing likewise to the former since some element of a cause is always inherent in its effects? The paradox inherent in unconditional positive regard lies not in its assumption of self as different from behavior; rather, it lies in the suggestion that the two be treated differently. Theoretical and empirical evidence for the paradox is presented, and resolution of the paradox is offered in the suggestion that contingent responses toward one's behavior reflect similar attributions to the self. The importance of this assumption is discussed in terms of the therapist–client relationship. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

American psychotherapy and its malcontents: A review of Cushman, Phillip (1995).

Reviews the book, Constructing the self, constructing America: A cultural history of psychotherapy by Phillip Cushman (1995). Phillip Cushman's 1995 Constructing the self, constructing America: A cultural history of psychotherapy provides both a far-reaching critique of psychoanalysis in America and an alternative theoretical approach founded on the notion of the self as sociohistorically configured and moral. With the proliferation and sometime redundancy of critiques of the mainstream, it would not be unfair to ask what Cushman's critical analysis effects beyond what has already found its way into print. To begin with, his contribution is distinguished by its object. Whereas most critiques are aimed at theories and practices as institutionalized in the academy, Cushman takes as his primary target those which have dominated the professional practice of psychotherapy in America. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Of the self, by the self, and for the self: An intra-relational perspective on intra-psychic attunement and psychological change.

This article explores the concept of self-relatedness, integrating ideas drawn from attachment theory, developmental studies, object relations, and interpersonal neurobiology with a multiplicity model of self. I suggest that because self-regulation begins as a dyadic interpersonal process between child and attachment figure, the mind renders such regulatory abilities across the life span via an analogous, intra-relational dyad. This “internal attachment system,” comprising states representing our subjective experience and states reflecting on and appraising that experience coordinates its activity in ways that best regulate the individual's affects, thoughts, perceptions, and behavior. Chronic trauma and neglect create patterns of intrapsychic relatedness that compromise connection, receptivity, adaptive engagement, and harmony among elements of the self system, thereby disrupting the mind's development toward greater coherence and complexity (Siegel, 2007). This article will also discuss the clinical application of intra-relational principles with pervasively maltreated people using a method called Intra-relational (I-R) Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (Lamagna & Gleiser, 2007). Applying Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy's use of dyadic affect regulation, the tracking of emergent somatic experience, and the processing positive effects associated with transformation to inner work with various internal parts of the self, I-R seeks to foster attunement and receptivity among previously dissociated parts of the individual. Creating intrapsychic safety provides an opening through which defensively excluded memories and associated emotions, thoughts, and impulses can be processed and integrated and increasingly coherent and complex forms of self-organization can be achieved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The psychotherapy of the elderly self.

Reviews the book, The psychotherapy of the elderly self by Hyman L. Muslin (see record 1992-98107-000). The purpose of this book is to describe the extension of psychoanalytic therapy in the Kohut mode to the elderly. Specifically the author describes the changes the elderly must cope with, the impact these changes have on the elderly self, and the kind of psychotherapy that will best help them cope with these changes. This book has a rather narrow focus, and is likely to be of interest mostly to those engaged in the Kohutian version of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. It does not present much material that is likely to be of help to those engaged in the more general practice of psychology with aged individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)