How Does Self Psychology Differ in Practice?

Dear Dr Hayley:

In his recent article 'How does self psychology differ in practice?' (1985, Vol. 66, pp. 391–404), Dr Robert Wallerstein cited my paper on the clinical application of self psychology as an 'excellent' example of the 'misplaced (and largely incorrect) emphasis in so many of the critical assessments … of self psychological analytic work'. Although it was kind of Dr Wallerstein to describe it as an 'elegant disquisition', his account of my methods and conclusions contains a number of significant inaccuracies which make the paper appear to have been no more than a trivial exercise in the 'close reading' of case material, and without substance as a critique. I wish to correct these inaccuracies.

• 1Dr Wallerstein describes my procedure as follows: First, he says, I outlined the major criticisms of self psychology that had been offered by previous writers. This is correct, but neglects to mention that many of those criticisms were drawn from my own prior publications. Next, according to Dr Wallerstein, I applied 'fine psychoanalytic scrutiny' to the clinical reports in Arnold Goldberg's Casebook(1978), detected significant instances of the 'psychoanalytic failings' which had been listed at the outset, and on this basis declared that self