Progress in Self Psychology, V. 12: Basic Ideas Reconsidered

Volume 12 of the Progress in Self Psychology series begins with reassessments of frustration and responsiveness, optimal and otherwise, by MacIsaac, Bacal and Thomson, the Shanes, and Doctors. The philosophical dimension of self psychology is addressed by Riker, who looks at Kohut's bipolar theory of the self, and Kriegman, who examines the subjectivism-objectivism dialectic in self psychology from the standpoint of evolutionary biology. Clinical studies focus on self- and mutual regulation in relation to therapeutic action, countertransference and the curative process, and the consequences of the negative selfobject in early character formation. A separate section of child studies includes a case study exemplifying a self-psychological approach to child therapy and an examination of pathological adaptation to childhood parent loss. With a concluding section of richly varied studies in applied self psychology, Basic Ideas Reconsidered promises to be basic reading for all students of contemporary self psychology.

Arnold Goldberg, M.D., is the Cynthia Oudejan Harris, M.D. Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Rush Medical College in Chicago, and Training and Supervising Analyst, Institute for Psychoanalysis, Chicago. He is the author of a number of books, including Being of Two Minds: The Vertical Split in Psychoanalysis (TAP, 1999) and Errant Selves: A Casebook of Misbehavior (TAP, 2000).