Self Psychology Flashcards
Who is most well known for Self Psychology theory?
Heinz Kohut (1959, 1971, 1977, 1979, 1984)
How did Kohut conceptualize psychopathology?
as disorders of the self
Basics of Kohut’s theory
- He believed that infants needed a parental environment that provided mirroring and idealization.
- Parents and other adults in the child’s life are considered selfobjects
- The infant is born into a world where others are responsive to it, but the infant’s own sense of self is weak, so he is looking towards selfobjects to provide a sense of cohesion and constancy for him.
Mirroring
parents responding to and reflecting back their child’s needs, desires, feelings, etc.
Idealization
perfect image of the parent that the child can form
-child needs to form an idealized image of at least one parent
Children need to form mirroring and idealized selfobjects ____
early in life and to experience a sense of temporary omnipotence from this
-selfobject can let the child down through transmuting internalizations
how does a child develop a healthy sense of self?
- child learns little by little that he is not omnipotent and that others are not perfect, but that is ok
healthy sense of self can occur….
on the idealizing pole, which is what leads to a healthy sense of ambition and assertiveness, and/or the mirroring pole, which leads to a firm sense of values
twinship (alterego) selfobjects
having peers around who are like the child and whom the child can see an image of himself in
How did Kohut believe psychopathology develops?
- as a result of a lack of empathy from the parents, and, more specifically, from their failure to provide an environment with mirroring and idealizing selfobjects and transmuting internalizations.
- The result is Fragile sense of self, decreased self-esteem, low self-worth
- The reason parents fail to provide this is because of their own pathology. Children often pick up on the same pathology of their parents.
example of Jane from Kohut perspective
Jane may have failed to develop a healthy sense of self. Given the way her mother interacted with her when she was a child (as described above), combined with the fact that she did not have a stable father figure in her life provide evidence that she did not grow up in an empathic environment where her self-development was able to flourish.
Narcissistic rage (1972)
a term used to describe reactions to what Freud (1939) called narcissistic wounds or injuries. Narcissistic rage can manifest as aloofness, irritation, annoyance, or even violence
How does Kohut describe healthy narcissism
appearance of a strong, vital, cohesive self-striving with ambition and ideal toward the full realization of a person’s skills and talents
What is narcissism?
appearance of a weak, vulnerable self that is attempting to maintain self-cohesion and bolster self-esteem
Kohut and the idea of ambience
- Free association within the empathic ambience of the consulting room can eventually develop into the analyses of selfobject transferences.
- Disruptions in this ambience are analyzed as empathic failures of the analyst and must result in a restoration of the empathic ambience in order for the analysis to proceed.
- Repetitions of this disruption-restoration process allow a person’s sense of self to change and develop in fundamental ways and define the psychoanalytic process.
