Book Notices

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELF: A CASEBOOK. Written with the collaboration of Heinz Kohut. Edited by Arnold Goldberg. New York: International Universities Press, 1978, viii + 460 pp., $22.50.

The analytic world now has a trilogy of works delineating Heinz Kohut's views about narcissistic disorders, which he has expanded into a separate theory of the psychology of the self. The addition of the Casebook was needed for a more complete elaboration of his concepts and their clinical application, a fact that Kohut and his associates had long recognized. Clinical vignettes were abundant in the Analysis of the Self, but fragmented and hence too meager to do more than illustrate a particular point. Larger segments of analyses were used in The Restoration of the Self to clarify Kohut's criteria for termination and other issues, but they were presented in such theoretical terms that their clinical verity was diminished. The six case reports contained in the Casebook are complete enough to convey a sense of the nature and continuity of interaction between the patients and analysts. Together, the three volumes provide a rich supply of diversified clinical data illuminating the theoretical exposition. Those who have enthusiastically endorsed Kohut's ideas as a seminal breakthrough in psychoanalysis and those who have theoretical differences and serious doubts about his technique will find in the latest book valuable new material on which to base their positions.

An introduction by Goldberg explains the method employed by the contributing group and offers an overview of Kohut's major ideas about narcissistic personality disorders, so that the book is virtually able to stand on its own. In addition, however, specific references to Kohut's works are included in each case report for elucidation of points in question. The cases were selected from completed analyses of students at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis and of colleagues in other localities. All benefited from