Post-Kohutian Self Psychology1

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the assumptions that the post-Kohutian self psychology (PKSP) psychoanalytic school makes about what is required for the kind of therapeutic transformation it envisions for its patients. It describes four underlying assumptions. Empathic listening and selfobject experiences are the first two. The third assumption, which distinguishes PKSP from its predecessors, is the belief that transformation can only occur in an intersubjective relationship of mutual influence that takes place in a two-person bi-directional space. The fourth assumption encompasses the idea that the space is organized by multiple self-states of patient and analyst. Each assumption is implicit in the PKSP perspectives included in the chapter: Bacal's specificity theory, Brandchaft's pathological accommodation, Togashi and Kottler's psychology of being human, and Tolpin's idea of the forward edge. The chapter also briefly addresses assumptions the PKSP school makes about the nature of the psychic structure, energy, relationships, developmental stages, the body, anxieties/instincts and defenses, etiology, and implications for technique. The chapter concludes with a brief mention of some developments of the core concepts, including Lichtenberg, Fosshage, and Lachman's motivational systems theory and Geist's ideas about connectedness.