A Rose Is a Rose Is a Rose

The suggestion has been under debate within the International Association of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology Council as to whether we need a name change. The discussion actually began with a question, but for some it seemed soon to be more than a suggestion—almost only a matter of “when” rather than “if.”

My personal answer to the question is that I do not see the need for a name change at this moment in time. However, I want the reader to be free to decide that for him or herself.

Allow me, however, to start my discussion by requesting that the reader (and myself) keep an open mind, allowing for any possible answer—yes or no—as a result of pondering the considerations I am raising.

First, I would like to take a brief look at our history of the International Association of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology. A long time has passed since the first meetings that Heinz Kohut and his early co-workers organized in the 1970s. Some of us still remember these meetings; some joined later.

Since then, the International Association of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology was founded as a membership organization and has been organizing our yearly scientific meetings—the 34th Annual International Conference on The Psychology of the Self to be held in Washington, DC, in October, 2012. Additionally, our still-young journal, The International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, has become an international publication venue in full bloom. Towards the outside world, we thus present ourselves with a coherent name, and “Self Psychology” is at the center of it.

Internally, however, there have been several modes and several phases of debate, discussion, discourse, and, at times, discord, as expansions and transformations of Kohut's ideas have been developed under the umbrella of Self Psychology in the context of changing world views and broadened international connectivity. This is the moment in time in which the question regarding a potential name change has been raised.

The debate regarding a