Disorders of the Self (A Personality Guided Approach), by Marshall L. Silverstein,  American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., 2006,  315 pp.

The huge proliferation of knowledge in the fields of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, psychology, and psychiatry has led to a very difficult situation for scholars and practitioners in those disciplines. Probably one would be safe in saying that there exist a multitude of psychoanalyses, psychiatries, psychotherapies, and psychologies, each of which is built on a knowledge base and set of applied concepts, methods, and practices that are relatively distinctive and that separate this version from others that share its label. It is impossible for any individual to be conversant with most of the new developments and directions in his or her specialty, let alone in those other sub-disciplines and broader disciplines that are related. Most of us are relegated to a passing familiarity with new ideas, trends, and practices, and remain ignorant of, or perhaps barely literate about, ways of thinking and working that could enrich and improve our clinical conceptualizations and psychothérapeute efforts.

It would be difficult to identify many psychoanalytically oriented theorists or practitioners who are totally ignorant about Self Psychology and the groundbreaking ideas and methods introduced into psychoanalysis by Kohut and his successors. Yet, this important variant of psychoanalysis is not well understood by most analysts,