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Earth knows no hate but only love that has turned to hate; and hell knows no rage but a rejected baby.
There is a widespread misconception in many psychoanalytic circles that self psychology does not deal with destructive aggression (i.e., narcissistic rage) but sidesteps it in order to have a more cozy atmosphere in the consulting room. It is assumed that self psychologically informed psychoanalysts wish to create a corrective emotional experience through a warmer ambience instead of analysing their patients' destructive aggression. Nothing is further from the truth—as I hope to show and as I have already shown extensively (Ornstein 1993a, 1993b, Ornstein & Ornstein 1993) So have other self psychologists (Bartosch 1993, Lachmann 1997, Terman, 1975) What is it then, I have wondered, that maintains such misconceptions in the face of ample evidence to the contrary? I hope to offer some answers to this question as I describe how self psychology views and treats aggression in the clinical situation.
I assume that such misconceptions do not exist among the readers of this essay, and self psychology is better known today than when the misconceptions first arose. But just in case some readers do share the misconceptions I mentioned, I wish to offer additional clarifications and clinical vignettes to demonstrate that self psychology does indeed deal with all forms of aggression—albeit differently from other psychoanalytic approaches I am familiar with.