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A comprehensive psychoanalytic theory of adult development has yet to be formulated. In this paper, which builds on the work of Kernberg (1977), Kohut (1977), Loewald (1960), Saperstein and Games (1973), and other authors, we explore the nature of the adult self, concentrating on a description of its emergence and characteristics, and the narcissistic issues that underlie its development. Our ideas follow from an earlier paper entitled “Some Observations and Hypotheses About the Psychoanalytic Theory of Adult Development” (Colarusso and Nemiroff, 1979), in which we defined seven hypotheses about adult development.
They are as follows:
The nature of the developmental process is basically the same in the adult as in the child.
Development in adulthood is an ongoing, dynamic process.
Whereas childhood development is focused primarily on the formation of psychic structure, adult development is concerned with the continued evolution of existing psychic structure and with its use.
The fundamental developmental issues of childhood continue as central aspects of adult life, but in altered form.
The developmental processes in adulthood are influenced by the adult past as well as the childhood past.
Development in adulthood, as in childhood, is deeply influenced by the body and by physical change.
A central, phase-specific theme of adult development is the normative crisis precipitated by the recognition and acceptance of the finiteness of time and the inevitability of personal death.
In essence, we conceptualized the developmental process as lifelong and as an integral part of the psychology of adulthood, describing the normal adult as being in a state of constant dynamic change and flux, subject to the influences of the