Review of Psychotherapy after Kohut: A textbook of self psychology.

Reviews the book, Psychotherapy after Kohut: A textbook of self psychology by Ronald R. Lee and J. Colby Martin (see record 1991-98948-000). More than a decade since Kohut's death, the volume of writing in the field of self psychology continues to expand, testifying to the stimulating challenge of his theories not only to mental health professionals in all disciplines but to those in the humanities as well. The latest contribution, Psychotherapy after Kohut: A textbook of self psychology, is a welcome arrival. Each chapter opens with a paragraph outlining teaching goals and closes with a summary and suggested readings for the following chapter. Lee and Martin provide a review of classical Freudian theory, brief excerpts of the classic cases from which it was derived, the principal early controversies, and a new view of Ferenczi's contributions. Lee and Martin provide a thoughtful, carefully reasoned, and comprehensive synthesis of the work of those writers who in their opinion have enhanced and expanded the concepts of self psychology and those who deny the significance of self-psychological concepts for psychoanalysis or psychotherapy or seek to demonstrate that the ideas are not new. Informative and challenging, Psychotherapy after Kohut, with its integration and synthesis of many points of view, is a contribution to the field of textbooks. Readers will find much to inform and strengthen their understanding of psychotherapy after Kohut. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reply to Karen Maroda's (2002) review of Heinz Kohut: The making of a psychoanalyst.

In this reply, Charles Strozier raises objections to the review by Karen Maroda (2002) of his biography of Heinz Kohut. He questions Maroda's fairness in consulting with several people--especially Robert Stolorow--bound to raise critical (and biased) objections to the biography without also talking to more objective observers. Stozier also notes how profoundly Maroda misunderstands his characterization of Kohut's sexuality in the biography. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading psychoanalytic developments contextually: A reply to Bocknek on Kohut.

Replies to comments by Gene Bocknek (see record 2009-05605-008) on the author's original article (1986) on self psychology and Heinz Kohut. Masek believes that three problems separate his reading of Kohut's contributions from Bocknek's reading of Kohut and Masek's paper. All three problems converge on the issue of how Bocknek's response understands the issues raised in Masek's paper. These problems are as follows: (1) Precedents are not paradigms; (2) trends ≠ sameness of contributions; and (3) the relations between ego, the self, and Ego Psychology and Self Psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Kohut, psychoanalysis, and psychology—A response to Masek.

As a psychologist grounded in and respectful of general psychology, and as a clinician who uses and teaches ego psychological theory, it seems to the author that Masek (1986) overstates the meaning and contribution of Kohut's work. As he points out, the current status of psychoanalysis—as theory and as praxis—is unparalleled for its "creative ferment". Indeed, the metaphor of identity crisis might well apply to the timing and severity of the upheavals confronting the psychoanalytic movement today. But that internal chaos is not wholly attributable to Kohut. Both ego psychology and object relations theory raise questions which jeopardize such fundamental tenets of Freudian theory as the dualistic theory of libidinal and aggressive drives; the primacy of Oedipal conflict in the etiology of psychopathology; the neutrality and impersonal detachment of the analyst. In addition, the limitations of psychoanalysis as a treatment when costed against alternative therapies has radically reduced the client pool, thus raising other questions about theory and practice. From this context, the author reviews Masek's view of the impact of Kohut on the theory and practice of "mainstream" psychoanalytic thought. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Heinz Kohut: The making of a psychoanalyst.

Reviews the book, Heinz Kohut: The making of a psychoanalyst by Charles B. Strozier (see record 2001-00786-000). Strozier engages in a roller-coaster approach to the telling of Kohut's life. Just when you are feeling sorry for him because of what he had to endure, you are yanked back into idealizing him again. This book is mostly quite readable but bogs down when Strozier attempts to educate the reader about Kohut's theories. As the only record we have of Kohut's life, Strozier's book is invaluable and will be of interest to anyone concerned with psychoanalysis. But I hope that somewhere down the line there will be another biography that is not so intent on de-idealizing him and will provide a more integrated and insightful tale of this very complicated and compelling man. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The Kohut seminars on self psychology and psychotherapy with adolescents and young adults.

Reviews the book, The Kohut seminars on self psychology and psychotherapy with adolescents and young adults by Miriam Elson (1985). This book is an editing of psychotherapy supervisory seminars offered in 1969-1970 by Heinz Kohut for psychiatrists, social workers, and psychiatric residents at the University of Chicago Student Mental Health Center. Patients focused on are late adolescents and young adults. Editor Miriam Elson's aim is to provide an understanding of Kohut's theories regarding narcissism and how this theoretical understanding was used by Kohut in treatment of pathological forms of narcissism. The book is divided into two sections, one describing Kohut's theory and the other Kohut's supervision of cases presented in the seminars. Concepts emphasized in Kohut's theoretical perspective--empathy, self-object function, developmental lines of narcissism and object love, self-esteem, understanding, the omnipotent/grandiose self, the idealizing transference and transmuting internalization--are developed and then applied in the casework. Effort is strongly made to relate theory to practice; through the editor's work this is accomplished. This is a readable, helpful book that can be used in psychotherapeutic work with late adolescents and young adults and, possibly, in other settings as well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The biographer's new clothes: Response to Strozier (2003).

In responding to Strozier's (2003) reply to the review of his book, Stolorow gives an account of the genesis of his ideas on borderline states, which Strozier had severely distorted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Heinz L. Ansbacher (1904-2006).

Heinz Ludwig Ansbacher was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on October 21, 1904. He died at his home in Burlington, Vermont, on June 22, 2006, at the age of 101 years. Alfred Adler's influence led Ansbacher to the field of psychology, where he began a lifelong scholarship on the psychology of Alfred Adler. Among Heinz's distinctions and honors were being named a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Kiel, Germany, and serving as president of the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology. Many of us will remember Professor Ansbacher as a person who lived by Adlerian principles: encouraging others while helping them to find a goal in life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Kohut, Loewald, and the Postmoderns: A Comparative Study of Self and Relationship: Book review.

Review of book: Judith Guss Teicholz (Au.) Kohut, Loewald, and the Postmoderns: A Comparative Study of Self and Relationship. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press, 1999, 320 pp. Reviewed by Henry J. Friedman. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The final reply to Stolorow (2003) and Orange (2003).

In his final word in this heated exchange, Strozier dismisses the relevance of Donna Orange's (2003) comments and notes how peculiar were the comments of Robert Stolorow (2003). Strozier's point is that Kohut warmly supported the work of Stolorow, but he notes, again, that the essential concept of so-called intersubjective theory is entirely based in Kohut's ideas from the 1970s. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychology of the altruist.

Some findings from the intensive case studies of five persons devoting their lives to humanitarian concerns are reported. Psychoanalytic interviewing, projective data, and personal material from the subjects suggested similarities in the inferred unconscious sources of their characterological altruism. The subjects' personas were characterized by helpfulness, sociophilia, and positive affect. Their central defenses included compulsivity, identification with the victim, and reversal. Their dynamics included the management of unconscious guilt or shame about hostility and greed. The inferred genetics of these dymanics included good-enough nurturance in the symbiotic phase of development; the loss of availability of the mothering object between the ages of two and three; and the timely intervention of an altruistic substitute figure, in the context of a subculture giving religious expression to the value of benevolence. These observations are related to pertinent studies on altruism in the literatures of psychoanalysis and academic psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Narcissism and borderline states: Kernberg, Kohut, and psychotherapy.

The post-Freudian era of consciousness is examined, wherein the individual is reconsidered from two viewpoints--narcissism and borderline states--via two seminal thinkers, Kohut and Kernberg. This is elaborated on through discussion of a "conflict" in Freud's work (i.e., the paradoxical conflicts in Freud between personal insight and natural science metaphors) and the utilization of paradigm shift and crisis in science. This continues in the dialectic concerning the theoretical and treatment styles of Kohut and Kernberg. The advantages, liabilities, and linguistic structures of both writers are studied in relation to their explorations of disturbances of the self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Being of two minds: The vertical split in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy: Book review.

Review of book, Arnold Goldberg (Au.), Being of Two Minds: The Vertical Split in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press, 1999, 192 pp., $34.50. Reviewed by Henry J. Friedman. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathy's romantic dialectic: Self psychology, intersubjectivity, and imagination.

The author views Kohut's conceptualization of psychoanalytic empathy and its subsequent development by intersubjectivity theorists as an extension of a larger Romantic epistemological tradition in which the role of imagination in mental life is both central and precise. To illuminate this argument, the author reconsiders Kohut's distinction between the "presence of empathy" and "empathy as a mode of observation." Next is described the way in which the ambivalence represented by this distinction is resolved through intersubjectivity theory. Finally, the author explores several key aspects of the Romantic imagination as a response to Cartesianism in order to evolve an understanding of empathy as a bilateral procedure mediating self-experience and experience of the other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reflections on the main schools of the world psychology in the Czech interwar psychology.

The author deals with the reasons for the different level of acceptance of the three important psychological perspectives (Gestalt psychology, behaviorism, and psychoanalysis) in the Czech interwar psychology. Gestalt psychology was probably the most accepted approach, which was at least partly caused by its founding in the neighboring Germany. It was an academic perspective that was convenient for the professional ambitions of its representatives as well as for their endeavor to establish psychology as a serious scientific discipline. On the contrary, the acceptance of behaviorism was rather negative or indifferent. Czech psychologists perceived it as a predominantly foreign, extraneous school of thinking. They preferred the studies on consciousness and the method of introspection over empirical research. Psychoanalysis also has never taken deeper roots in Czechoslovakia. Some Czech intellectuals accepted the existence of unconsciousness but they criticized Freudian sexual symbolism (Peroutka, ?apek). Negative attitudes of the politicians Masaryk and Bene? also contributed to the cool reception of this school. With sporadic exceptions, the psychoanalytic thinking was developed only in a small Jewish-German-Czech circle. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The relational self: Theoretical convergences in psychoanalysis and social psychology.

Reviews the book, The relational self: Theoretical convergences in psychoanalysis and social psychology edited by Rebecca C. Curtis (see record 1991-97680-000). The relational self, a collection of papers from a conference held at Adelphi University in 1990, represents the latest attempt at rapprochement between psychoanalysis and social/personality psychology. The core unifying theme in this new effort at integration is the relational self. The dialectical relation between the self and environment is well illustrated by four essays devoted to current perspectives from social psychology. Several other essays provide the reader with a glimpse of the richness and vitality in current research on the self. I see no easy way of reconciling the two underlying research traditions, which differ not only in their methods and aims but also in the basic language used to describe human experiences. Perhaps in these postmodern times, there is no urgent need to stretch paradigms in the quest for unity of science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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)     

Review of The theory and practice of self psychology.

Reviews the book, The theory and practice of self psychology by M. T. White and M. B. Weiner (see record 1986-97572-000). White and Weiner provide a clear and concise overview of the central concepts of Kohut's self psychology in this clinically useful volume. Readers uninitiated in the self psychological literature are likely to gain an appreciation for the clinical utility of self psychological concepts. Readers who have previously explored Kohut's work may find (as did this reviewer) that a close reading of White and Weiner's book promotes a greater grasp of the evolution of Kohut's thought and a renewed appreciation for the profundity of his clinical observations. White and Weiner's book does have some minor shortcomings. The authors make little effort to place Kohut's self psychology within the historical context of psychoanalytic thought (keeping alive a tradition that some have said began with Kohut himself). As a result, useful and related efforts by others (e.g., Winnicott, Rogers, Binswanger, Sullivan, and others) at explicating the concept of the self go essentially ignored. Shortcomings notwithstanding, White and Weiner succeed in providing a highly accessible and lucid overview of self psychological concepts and in offering the reader a demonstration of how these concepts apply to the clinical situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Heinz Kohut and Carl Rogers: A timely comparison.

States that H. Kohut (1971, 1978, 1984) has succeeded in integrating many of C. R. Rogers's (1951, 1961, 1980) concepts of humanistic psychology into his version of psychoanalysis. The similarities and differences between the 2 approaches are described. One important similarity concerns the therapist's attitude during the psychotherapeutic situation, with both authors stressing the value of empathy and openness. An important difference is that Kohut has theorized that the goal of psychotherapy, and of human development in general, is strengthening the structure of the self, rather than widening of the consciousness. The means by which Kohut has been able to provide a bridge between psychoanalysis and humanistic psychology are discussed, and the implications of Kohut's ideas for the practice of psychotherapy are considered. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Selfobject" Needs in Kohut's Self Psychology: Links With Attachment, Self-Cohesion, Affect Regulation, and Adjustment.

Seven studies examined the validity and usefulness of central constructs in Kohut's self psychology: selfobject needs for mirroring, idealization, and twinship and avoidance of acknowledging these needs. These constructs were assessed with a new self-report measure that was found to be reliable, valid, and empirically linked with a variety of constructs in contemporary personality and social psychology. The findings supported and refined Kohut's ideas about the independence of the 3 selfobject needs, the orthogonality between these needs and defensive attempts to avoid acknowledging them, the motivational bases of narcissism, and the contribution of selfobject needs to problems in interpersonal functioning, mental health, self-cohesion, and affect regulation. The findings reveal mutually beneficial conceptual links between Kohut's self psychology and attachment theory and suggest ways in which Kohut's theory can be studied empirically. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)