You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
With the deft touch of an experienced craftsperson, John Hanwell Riker uses the tools of philosophy to offer a compelling introduction to self psychology in Exploring the Life of the Soul. The book is gentle, in its voice and diction, and remarkably accessible, but it makes a strident case for Riker’s alternative to postmodern ethical relativism. The wisdom offered by Riker in these pages is clearly the result of long and earnest efforts to both listen and teach. His version of psychoanalysis focuses attention on the impact that the “life of the soul” has on the way human beings live in the world. Riker’s articulation of this approach, rich with connections to philosophy, psychology, and literature, is the obvious product of many decades and teaching and mentoring. Every good author is also a good teacher; this book models a pedagogy that encourages a deep but critical reading of the texts and traditions that have provided us resources for thinking about the “self” psychologically. Exploring the Life of the Soul is readable but challenging, and succeeds in its aim to provide a gripping introduction to a philosophically informed version of self psychology. Riker worries that after the “death of God” in the nineteenth century, no empirical or naturalistic replacement has been established to provide a foundation for an ethical way to be human. Self psygchology, as developed by Kohut and updated in this book by Riker, provides an alternative to the groundless existence that leads to the “pleasure-optimizing economic subjects who roam the earth these days” (xxv).
With this book, Riker verifies and solidifies his role as a contemporary representative of the tradition of self psychology, analyzing and updating the insights of Heinz Kohut (1913-1981) for the 21st century. For Kohut, much of the problem with human development stems from the mismanagement of naturally drives to narcissism. Kohut advocates a healthy narcissism, which he bases on the normal developmental stages