Self Psychology in Brief

PPT presentation based on Peter A. Lessem's book, Self Psychology: An Introduction, created by Luba Rascheff, MDiv Harvard University, for the Psycho-Spiritual Care and Therapy Practicum, Supervised Pastoral Education (SPE Basic II): Integrative Theory and Practice (EMP3551Y), taken in the Winter term of 2020 at the University of Toronto which explains Heinz Kohut's Self Psychology in brief.

1. SELF PSYCHOLOGY luba Rascheff | emp 35xxyy—psycho-Spiritual care and therapy practicum (SPE BASIC II) All citations (unless stated otherwise) are taken from peter a. lessem’s self psychology: an introduction | published by Jason aronson, an imprint of Rowman & littlefield publishers, inc 2005. Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash

2. Heinz Kohut, was an Austrian-American psychoanalyst best known for developing the school of thought called Self Psychology.’* *Source: ‘Heinz Kohut,’ Wikipedia , accessed online on 29 December 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Kohut , last modified on 14 October 2019. | Image credit: https://luckyottershaven.com/category/heinz-kohut/

3. Self Psychology “The idea of the selfobject is the core concept in self psychology.” (26)

4. Selfobject

5. Selfobject(s) (continued) Other definitions of self object(s) are: “ The subjective aspect of a function performed by a relationship.” (28) External Psychobiological Regulators (37) The “subjective experiences of images … needed for the sustenance of the self.” (28)

6. Regulation Implicit in the selfobject concept is regulation . There are two classes of selfobject regulatory experience : Soothing —interactive regulation of negative affect Vitilazation —interactive regulation of positive affect Affective states are psycho-physiological constructs (a.k.a. emotions). (37)

7. Selfobjects serve a narcissistic function The patient expects to control selfobjects in the same way that she controls parts of her body. (Case Illustration of Miss F., 140 ff)

8. The 2 Systems of Perfection According to Kohut, as a child grows up, it develops two systems (or lines) of perfection. 1. The Narcissistic Developmental Line of the Idealized Parental Imago , and, 2. The Developmental Line of the Grandiose Exhibitionistic Self (7-8)

9. Idealized Parental Imago To compensate for disturbances caused by inevitable caregiver shortcomings, the infant … invests the caregiver with “absolute perfection and omnipotent power.” (7) You make your parent God. OR …

10. Grandiose Exhibitionistic Self To compensate for disturbances caused by inevitable caregiver shortcomings, the infant … invests [their rudimentary self with] “absolute perfection and omnipotent power.” (7) You make yourself God. To preserve the “original sense of power, perfection, and unity with the mother.” (8)

11. The Grandiose Exhibitionistic Self (continued) The idea for the Grand Exhibitionistic Self is that when the mother reflects, echoes, and admires the child, her phase-appropriate maternal responses soothe the child, confirm their grandiose-expansive self, and help them restore balance and later do self-soothing. “Optimally, these responses lead to … transformation and internalization of the child’s archaic grandiosity and exhibitionism.” These responses ultimately help the child develop a “realistic and stable self-esteem.” (8)

12. Freud’s concept of Narcissism Freud defined narcissism as the “libidinal cathexis of the ego … [or] the investment of energy in the ego.” (11) Freud saw self love (auto-eroticism, narcissism) on one end of the pole and object love on the other.

13. Kohut’s concept of Narcissism Kohut thought that there were “mature forms of narcissism[:] self-esteem regulation, empathy, creativity and wisdom” (14) and that narcissism developed on “its own developmental line separate from that of object love.” (18)

14. Maturity Comes “With adequate selfobject experience and the absence of traumatization, the grandiose and idealizing poles of the self … develop from archaic to mature forms.” (20)

15. 3 Selfobject Needs The three selfobject needs are: Mirroring Idealizing Twinship / Alter Ego

16. 1. Mirroring The selfobject mirroring (grandiose) need is concerned with building and maintaining self-esteem. (6) It refers to “the need to feel affirmed and recognized, to feel … accepted and appreciated, especially when showing something valued about oneself.” (39)

17. The Vertical Split If a child’s mirroring selfobject needs are not met, then a dissociative “self-protecting” vertical split can happen—a “separation or division in its psychological organization and experience.” (42)

18. The Horizontal Split The horizontal split—which involves repression—is a less severe pathological condition than the vertical split. (46)

19. 2. Idealization The idealizing selfobject need is concerned with feeling safe, calm and soothed by being connected to someone admired. (47)

20. Idealization (continued) “Kohut believed that the early or archaic manifestations of the idealizing selfobject need … slowly become transformed into internalized goals, values, and strengths.” (49)

21. Idealization (continued) If a child is “massively disappointed” by her idealized mother, for example, then she will feel less safe and without a positive model to relate to. She will be left with “a sense of emptiness and a yearning to have a relationship with an idealized other.” (49)

22. The Bipolar Self The bipolar self is represented by the “energic continuum” between two poles (grandiose and idealizing, the first two selfobject needs) and constitutes the dynamic-structural essence of mental health. When Kohut added the twinship or alter ego selfobject need (the third), he created the … (50)

23. The Tripolar Self “Initially, Kohut designated his view of the self as the ‘bipolar self’ to emphasize the bipolar structure he formulated [idealization and grandiose poles] … . Later, when he added the concept of a third selfobject need and transference—the twinship or alter ego selfobject need—he revised this conception to the ‘tripolar self.’” (30)

24. 3. Twinship The twinship selfobject need refers to the desire in early development to feel alikeness to other human beings. (51) Freud had early noted that ‘The idea of the “double” … [came] from unbounded self-love, from the primary narcissism which holds sway in the mind of the child.* * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_psychology

25. “The concept of the self … is only meaningful when spoken of together with the concept of the selfobject and of the self-selfobject matrix .” “Above all, the self is viewed as embedded in a selfobject matrix.” (26) Image credit: markus spiske on unsplash

26. The self develops through interplay between a baby’s innate equipment (physiology, temperament etc.) and the selective responses of the baby’s attachment figures to its selfobject needs. Around two years of age, the “ nuclear self ” forms which is consistent with personality organization. Photo by Brytny.com on Unsplash

27. The Self Kohut thought that the self could not be defined. (29) At first he used Freud’s terms of id, ego and superego (structural model of the psyche) to define it. (Ibid.) Later he used the term “self as a superordinate concept.” (Ibid.) Self = depth-psychological concept = personality’s core (Ibid.) “Kohut’s selfobject concept rendered the self as fluid, unbounded, and contextualized.” (30)

28. The Self (continued) The constituents of the self are: The (grandiose) pole of recognition and power (early ambitions) The (idealizing) pole of guiding ideals (early ideals) The (twinship) pole of alter ego (develops during latency phase) The arc of tension that activates skills and talents (30)

29. Empathy “Empathy is one of the fundamental concepts in self psychological theory and practice. Kohut called it ‘the capacity to think and feel oneself into the inner life of another person.’” (63, my emphasis) Kohut emphasized empathy because of his concern that (authoritarian, omniscient, Freudian) analysts were rigidly applying theory rather than hearing the patient’s perspective. (Ibid.)

30. “Empathy is biological survival.” Heinz Kohut

31. Empathy (continued) Empathy is very important because: The analyst needs to be free from any preconceived notions (such as that the Oedipus complex re. object love is not at the root of all psychological problems); and, The analyst is not a detached, objective observer but a participant in what happens in the analytic encounter. (64)

32. 4 Misunderstandings about Empathy Empathy is not about being “nice.” It’s a value-neutral mode of learning about the patient. Empathy is not the same as sympathy. Do not confuse empathic immersion with empathic expression. Empathy does not mean transcending or suspending my own subjectivity as an analyst. (64-66)

33. The Empathic Stance We should think about empathy as a stance taken toward the patient. Kohut referred to vicarious introspection as being when the analyst taps into her own subjective experience in order to understand the patient’s experience. (65-66)

34. The Empathic Stance (continued) Initially, Kohut thought of empathy as more of an epistemological way (an objective method ) of gathering information about a patient. Over time, though, he began to appreciate the “important relational functions and effects of empathy.” (67)

35. Empathy as an Observational Stance Empathy has the power to create and sustain bonds between people . Kohut viewed this type of responsiveness as therapeutic . Introspection + Empathy = empathic-introspective mode = basic analytic tool for the gathering of psychological data. (67)

36. 2 Types of Data in Psychoanalysis There are 2 Types of Data in Psychoanalysis Introspective (data obtained in the analyst’s internal realm) Extrospective (data obtained in the analyst’s external realm) The field internal to the observer where data are accessible through the empathic-introspective mode is the field of depth psychology . (67)

37. “Psychoanalysis is the ultimate depth psychology.” Heinz Kohut

38. Structuralization Structuralization is the process of acquiring (new) structures or themes of experience that lead to strengthening. The two selfobject processes that lead to strengthening are: Attunement (a basic attunement between parent and child) Optimal Frustration (experiences of selfobject failures) Attunement + Optimal Frustration = Transmuting Internalization

39. Transmuting Internalization “Transmuting internalization is a process that participates in the formation of psychic structure, as postulated by Heinz Kohut.” (Google search on 29 December, 2019)

40. Corrective Selfobject Experience The principal aim of therapy in self psychology is “the strengthening of the self through corrective emotional [a.k.a. selfobject] experience that alters pathological aspects of the patient’s self organization.” (page 79) The aim of therapy, according to Ernest Wolf, is to help the patient jump into the fray of life—perhaps with fear—but nevertheless undeterred. (79)

41. Corrective Selfobject Experience (continued) “Kohut, Bacal (1985), and Paul Tolpin (1983) assert that the internalization, structuralization, or representation of the cohesion-fostering selfobject tie or selfobject relationship is the therapeutic, ‘corrective’ experience in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Crucial to the corrective … experience are (1) the reactivation of the patient’s previously thwarted, arrested selfobject needs; and (2) the therapist becoming a primary target for the meeting of these needs … .” (90)

42. Corrective Selfobject Experience (continued) “The corrective [selfobject] experience is fostered by the patient’s repetitive experiencing of the therapist’s responsiveness as helping [her] to cocreate the selfobject experiences that were insufficient in childhood.” (90)

43. The 4 Elements of the Corrective Selfobject Experience Transference [from patient to therapist] that allows patient to make therapist the object of her selfobject needs Earlier selfobject experiences antedating therapy Therapist’s response to patient’s selfobject needs Patient’s capacity for creating fantasy (90)

44. The Compensatory Path If a patient is deficient in meeting one selfobject need, there is a compensatory path that involves building up another selfobject need or needs. Failure to meet mirroring needs can, for example, lead to a compensatory path of solidifying twinship. “The concept of compensatory structure implies that there are various pathways to a vital, functional self.” (91-93)

45. The Concept of Self-Liberation as Part of the Curative Process This concept involves gradually undoing the vertical split and thus enabling the formerly split-off part of the self to integrate with the conscious part of the self. (93) Kohut believed that this process “also involved the analytic process [of] penetrating the repression barrier that … held back authentic expansive narcissism, forming what he termed the ‘horizontal split’ … .” (94)

46. The Concept of Self-Liberation as Part of the Curative Process (continued) “Once mobilized by the selfobject dimension of the transference and freed by [an analysis of what causes the patient to have defenses], these energies [previously sequestered by the vertical split] become available to the [patient] in her everyday life—giving rise to ambitions, ideals, creativity, humor and empathy.” (94)

47. The Concept of Self-Liberation as Part of the Curative Process (continued) “Thus, self-liberation, Kohut believed, is a two-stage process. It involves [1] the liberation of the self from the self-suppressing tie to the [archaic] attachment figure as well as the freeing of one’s authentic initiatives. This process is made possible by [2] the therapeutic relationship with particular emphasis on the selfobject dimension of this [analytic] relationship.” (94)

48. Psychopathology in Self Psychology In contrast to the classical view that psychopathology results from inner psychic conflict, self psychology sees it as an “impediment to self-realization resulting from self-protective adaptations to felt deficiencies in selfobject experience.” (97)

49. Approach to Psychopathology in Self Psychology Self psychologists focus on improving a patient’s … Self-esteem regulation Self-cohesion Sense of personal agency Affect Tolerance Sense of Vitality Sense of self-continuity

50. Causes of Psychopathology according to Self Psychology Contrary to the classical psychoanalytic view, in self psychology, psychopathology is associated with “arrested and distorted self-development that results from the absence or insufficiency of selfobject experience in the child’s relationship with attachment figures.” (97)

51. “ Vulnerability is greatest in the formative years of childhood and adolescence. Young children whose expected selfobject experience has psychologically vanished will experience a loss of their usual sense of self: ‘They will feel unreal, shadowy, ghost-like [and] empty … .” Their world will become dead. (98) Photo by Casey Botticello on Unsplash

52. 2 Factors in Vulnerable SelfStructure Insufficient selfobject experience during crucial developmental periods. Resulting constricting, organizing themes and linked self-protective, defensive behaviors. (102)

53. “Fragmentation refers to the diminished sense of self-coherence that results from an insufficiency of selfobject responsiveness … .” (103) Photo by  Umberto  on  Unsplash

54. “Kohut thought that the fragmentation experience resulted from disintegration anxiety. He believed that disintegration anxiety is the most profound anxiety human beings can experience.” (104) Photo by  Umberto  on  Unsplash

55. Oedipal Pathology “… Kohut did not view the oedipal stage as playing the cardinal role in the development of psychopathology, as do classical analytic theorists.” (107) Instead, Kohut averred that the main cause of oedipal pathology was “parental inability to empathize sufficiently with the developing self of the child during this developmental stage.” (106)

56. Trauma as the Root of Psychopathology “Self psychology regards developmental trauma —and the resulting self-protecting operations [defenses]—to be crucial to the genesis of psychopathology, whereas classical analytic theory regards conflict around drive-based wishes—and the resulting defensive measures—to be the source of psychopathology.” (109, my emphasis)

57. Addictive Behaviors in Self Psychology Kohut saw addiction as a compensatory mechanism for failures in the meeting of idealizing selfobject needs. Individuals who suffer from major disappointments in “early idealizing experience” turn to drugs, sex and alcohol to compensate for their inability to self-calm and self-soothe. (115)

58. The Matrix of the Therapeutic Relationship “Within the matrix of the therapeutic relationship, the patient’s selfobject needs meet with a combination of ‘optimal frustration’ … and ‘optimal responsiveness’. These responses foster a process of ‘transmuting internalizations.’” (119)

59. “As a result of the process of transmuting internalization, more flexible, cohesive, vital, and enduring self-regulating representations and processes are fashioned. This … enables the patient to live … in a more mature and varied selfobject [matrix] … . ” (119) Image credit: markus spiske on unsplash

60. Reactivation of Thwarted Selfobject Needs “… [Most] specific to the self psychological view of the clinical process, empathy is regarded as providing the most necessary condition for the development of the selfobject transference reactivation of a patient’s thwarted selfobject needs .” (121, my emphasis)

61. Self Psychology is about Self Development The principal goal of treatment in self psychology is to foster the “resumption of self-development” in the patient in areas where it was thwarted. Patient resistance (contrary to the Freudian view) is not seen by self psychology as protecting herself against forbidden drives or wishes, but against being retraumatized. (122)

62. Defense and resistance against re-traumatization work hand-in-hand to “safeguard psychic survival.” (122) Photo by Moritz Kindler on Unsplash

63. Defense and Resistance Unlike in Freudian analysis where the goal is to break through a patient’s defenses, self psychologists demonstrate empathic understanding and acceptance toward the patient with the aim of helping her feel safe—to become aware of her defenses—and “eventually not feel the need to employ them as rigidly and pervasively.” (123)

64. Selfobject Longings are not Resistance It is important not to confuse selfobject longings in the analytic relationship with resistance. One of Kohut’s patients, a certain Miss F., kept getting angry with Kohut not because she was resisting treatment, but because unmet childhood selfobject needs surrounding mirroring were beginning to be reactivated by therapy and she felt that Kohut should, and wasn’t, meeting these needs. (125)

65. Therapeutic transference means that the therapist is the longed-for, understanding “parent” who is … (129) Photo by Moritz Kindler on Unsplash

66. Strong enough—in rupture-and-repair cycles(126)—to tolerate the patient’s emotional upsets (ruptures) and mend and strengthen (repair) what’s broken in the selfobject bond. (129) Photo by Moritz Kindler on Unsplash

67. Whereas Freud thought of transference as a false bond and others as regression, displacement, projection and distortion, self psychology views it as a striving to organize self experience and make meanings . (131)

68. The Mirroring Selfobject Dimension of the Transference If a child experiences trauma or her parents’ responses are unempathic, her grandiose (expansive) self won’t “become integrated into the main fabric of [her] personality … .” In this case, her grandiose expansionistic self remains in its “archaic, primitive form” cut off from the part of her personality that is reality-based and what Freud termed ego. (138)

69. The Mirroring Selfobject Dimension of the Transference (continued) In this case, the therapist’s mirroring transference of empathic responses to the now adult patient’s unmet, phase-appropriate grandiose-expansionistic needs will help reactivate said needs within the analytic relationship, allow them to emerge, and foster their maturation, not necessarily gratification. This will counter the patient’s tendency to wall off her personality from her grandiose desires and help her move toward integration of the self. (Ibid.)

70. Kohut believed that psychoanalysis moves treatment forward in 2 ways: Understanding & Introspection Explanation Photo by Moritz Kindler on Unsplash

71. WHAT YOU SAY IS LESS IMPORTANT THAN HOW THE PATIENT INTERPRETS WHAT YOU SAY. IT ALL HAPPENS WITHIN THE SELF-SELFOBJECT MATRIX. (140) Image credit: markus spiske on unsplash

72. 2 Types of Interpretation in Self psychology Leading Edge (patient’s strivings toward progress now) Trailing edge (patient’s history that underlies her motivations and defenses) (143)

73. Optimal Responsiveness “Howard Bacal’s concept of optimal responsiveness moves self psychology more in the direction of emphasizing the patient’s relational experience with the therapist—and particularly [her] selfobject experiences—and diminishes Kohut’s emphasis on interpretation in the treatment process.” (146)

74. Optimal Responsiveness (continued) In his own words, Bacal says: “I coined the term, ‘optimal responsiveness,’ to denote a patient’s unique need for specific therapeutic responsivity.’”* * https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/psychiatrists/howard-bacal-los-angeles-ca/136129 , accessed on 4 January, 2020.

75. Self-state dreams are dreams that contain simple imagery that explicates the patient’s state. They are usually about the fear of disintegration. (153) Photo by  Aziz Acharki  on  Unsplash

76. The Main Guidelines for Self psychology (157-158) Primacy of Empathic Listening Patient’s Self State Patient’s Experience of Analyst Disruption and Repair Experiences Resistance as Self-Protection Leading Edge Experience Self-liberation from Pathological Enmeshment

77. Kohut was a postempiricist who pre-thought Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and whose Self Psychology may have been derived from “one of the paradigms of modern physics , that of the atom. ” (161-162)

78. Kohut thought of the ( nuclear) self to be like an atom . It has a core and, like the atom, self stability depends on its surrounding, coextensive field, the Selfobject Matrix. (162-163, modified) Photo by  Zoltan Tasi   on   Unsplash

79. The Intersubjectivity Theory The intersubjectivity theory and self psychology developed in tandem. Intersubjectivity posits that “theories are shaped by the subjective experience of their creators.” (169)

80. Examples of an intersubjective dyad within the intersubjective field are: Baby and Mother; and Analyst and Patient. . (171-172) Photo by  Vincent van Zalinge  on  Unsplash

81. The Goal of Treatment in Intersubjective Therapy “… The goal of treatment, according to intersubjective theory, is the unfolding, illumination, and transformation of the patient’s subjective world … .” (178)

82. Similarity between Intersubjective Theory and Self Psychology “There is considerable similarity between the intersubjective and self psychological perspectives … . Both theories maintain that the entire domain of psychoanalytic inquiry is a subjective experience. … Both theories reject the usefulness of the drive concept for psychoanalysis … . (182, my emphasis)

83. Similarity between Intersubjective Theory and Self Psychology (continued) “Intersubjectivity theorists have enthusiastically endorsed Kohut’s assertion that the only data for psychoanalytic understanding are those that are accessible through introspection and empathy (Kohut 1959, 1980).” (182)

84. Similarity between Intersubjective Theory and Self Psychology (continued) “In addition, both [theories] believe in the usefulness of the selfobject concept for understanding human development generally, and psychic development in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in particular. Both theories hold that the ‘organization of self experience is codetermined by the felt responsiveness of others’ … .” (Ibid.)

85. Similarity between Intersubjective Theory and Self Psychology (continued) “There are points of contact from within intersubjectivity theory that connect smoothly with self psychological theory as to the developmental importance of self object needs. However, within intersubjectivity theory, selfobject transferences are primarily seen as one of the many ways the patient organizes [her] experience of the analyst. In other words it views selfobject transferences as a class of organizing principles.” (184)

86. 3 Differences between Intersubjective Theory and Self Psychology Kohut’s description of empathy as neutral and objective in essence. “The central motivational principle of intersubjectivity [as] not focused on the selfobject concept but on the nature of the automatic organizing and ordering of experience, both new and old.” Empathy’s purpose seen to elaborate upon “unconscious organizing principles.” (183-184)

87. How does self psychology view aggression? Photo by  Chris Chow  on  Unsplash

88. A Very Different View Self psychology views aggression in the psychic life of the patient very differently from the way classical analytic theory does. This caused much controversy. Contrary to Freud, Kohut did not see aggression as an innate drive that needed to be mastered. He thought, rather, that if a truly more primary selfobject need in a patient was frustrated, only then would she resort to aggression. (196)

89. A Very Different View (continued) “Kohut believed that anger and rage are secondary in importance to psychological contexts within which other more primary emotions occur, such as narcissistic injury, disappointment, and frustration over unmet selfobject needs . In further contrast with the classical analytic view of aggression, [Kohut did] not subscribe to Freud’s idea of the death instinct” that is to say that human aggression seeks to destroy the objects of its hatred, jealousy, envy or rage. (196, my emphasis) . (197)

90. How does self psychology view narcissistic rage? Narcissus by Caravaggio depicts Narcissus gazing at his own reflection. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or fewer.

91. Narcissistic Rage Self psychology views narcissistic rage as a natural outcome of directly confronting a patient who is narcissistic and thus causing narcissistic injury, as was the norm before the development of self psychology. For Kohut, it belonged to the “larger non psychological field of aggression, destructiveness and anger.” According to Kohut, narcissistic rage stands in contradistinction to normal aggression that is non-destructive in nature. Kohut viewed narcissistic rage as a pathological phenomenon. (197-198)

92. “In the matrix of a fragile self, frustration in experiencing a needed selfobject response presents a stress that is unmanageable, perhaps even traumatic. ” (198) Image credit: markus spiske on unsplash

93. “Narcissistic rage is experienced as jeopardizing basic self-cohesion. The narcissistic rage which then erupts is … understood both as a sign of fragmentation of the self and response to the threatening state … .” (198) Photo by  Umberto  on  Unsplash

94. The desire of the narcissist to exact revenge in order to repair her narcissistic injury places narcissistic aggression in a category of its own. “… [Such] unforgiving relentless anger indicates that the aggression was mobilized in the service of the archaic grandiose self and … expressed within the framework of archaic or childlike expectations and perception of reality.” (198-199) Photo by  Umberto  on  Unsplash

95. Shame, helplessness and humiliation are emotions that accompany narcissistic rage. (200) Photo by  Umberto  on  Unsplash

96. END Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash