New Directions in Self Psychology – serie

Drawing from Kohut's conceptualisation of self, Riker sets out how contemporary America's formulation of persons as autonomous, self-sufficient individuals is deeply injurious to the development of a vitalizing self-structure—a condition which lies behind much of the mental illness and social malaise of today's world.By carefully attending to Kohut's texts, Riker explains the structural, functional, and dynamic dimensions of Kohut's concept of the self. He creatively extends this concept to show how the self can be conceived of as an erotic striving for connectedness, beauty, and harmony, separate from the ego. Riker uses this distinction to reveal how social practices of contemporary American society foster skills and traits to advance the aims of the ego for power and control, but tend to suppress the needs of the self to authentically express its ideals and connect with others. The book explores the impact that this view can have on clinical practice, and concludes by imaginatively constructing an ideal self-psychological society, using Plato's Republic as a touchstone.Informed by self psychology and philosophy, this book is essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and philosophers, seeking to revisit and revise constructions of both self and humanity.

Drawing from Kohut's conceptualisation of self, Riker sets out how contemporary America's formulation of persons as autonomous, self-sufficient individuals is deeply injurious to the development of a vitalizing self-structure—a condition which lies behind much of the mental illness and social malaise of today's world.By carefully attending to Kohut's texts, Riker explains the structural, functional, and dynamic dimensions of Kohut's concept of the self. He creatively extends this concept to show how the self can be conceived of as an erotic striving for connectedness, beauty, and harmony, separate from the ego. Riker uses this distinction to reveal how social practices of contemporary American society foster skills and traits to advance the aims of the ego for power and control, but tend to suppress the needs of the self to authentically express its ideals and connect with others. The book explores the impact that this view can have on clinical practice, and concludes by imaginatively constructing an ideal self-psychological society, using Plato's Republic as a touchstone.Informed by self psychology and philosophy, this book is essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and philosophers, seeking to revisit and revise constructions of both self and humanity.

This book offers an in-depth explanation of the concepts of self psychology and pragmatic steps for recognizing and using these concepts in clinical work, helping clinicians move from theory to practice.Both early and contemporary concepts in self psychology and intersubjectivity theory are discussed in successive chapters of the book, with illustrative examples drawn from the author’s experience working in diverse settings with a wide range of mental health practitioners. Individual chapters shed light on brief treatment, supervision, interpretation, development, agency and nuances of empathic communication, among other topics.In addressing these topics, specific tools for conceptualizing clinical data and guidelines for intervention are also described. The emphasis on helping people via a sustained focus on their internal, subjective experience and creating a new selfobject bond with the therapist unifies the chapters in this volume.With its rich clinical vignettes and accessible language, Self Psychology: Moving from Theory to Practice is also a valuable resource for supervisors and teachers of self psychology, whether in analytic training institutes, graduate schools of psychology, counseling and social work or continuing education programs.