Psychology of the Real Self: Psychoanalytic Perspectives

Abstract

A brief summary of the history of the development of psychoanalytic theories of the self is presented, beginning with Freud's ambiguous use of the term Ich to mean both the whole person and a part of the mind (ego). Freud and Jung parted over this issue, Jung emphasizing the self as the whole person. Others are described who followed; Rank, Adler, Horney, and Sullivan. The work of Erickson and Winnicott will also be described. The work of Heinz Kohut, who developed a theory of the self as being due to an independent line of development of narcissism, will be described. Finally, the most recent efforts to bring together the two concepts of self and ego by object relations theorists will be described through the work of Hartman, Jacobson, and Kernberg. The need for a new object relations concept of the real self is explained. The concept of the real self is defined both clinically and theoretically and differentiated from the above concepts of the self. The development, structure, function, and psychopathology of the real self is illustrated with case material.