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At the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology conference in 2019, I attended a plenary, A Dynamic View of Self hood, Affect and Political Context. It was a dynamite panel chaired by Peter Maduro with presenters Gita Zarnegar, and Jeffrey and Gabriel Trop. The material stayed with me. So did my curiosity about this father and son duo. I was familiar with Jeffrey’s earlier collaboration with Atwood et al. (1989) but not yet with Gabriel’s work. I promptly read their co-authored paper, Self Psychology and the Concept of the Nuclear Self: A Dynamic Systems Perspective (J. Trop & Trop, 2018). Recently, I had the great privilege of speaking with them together. We began by talking about how they came to collaborate.1
Jeffrey:
Basically, my memory is that ever since Gabe was a young teenager we would take walks in Santa Monica and walk the dogs together. We would talk about the theories that were of interest to me and even then Gabe had interesting questions and comments. I was trained in a traditional institute, the Los Angeles Institute of Psychoanalysis. I always looked up to my cousin Ruthie who was older and like a sister to me, and played a large part in my childhood development. She was a therapist in Chicago and said, “You’ve got to come and hear Heinz Kohut”.
I was a little skeptical because our institute said, “Heinz Kohut?! - he doesn’t deal with psychic conflict and drive!”.
I tried to be open and explore other theoretical pathways. I went to the first self psychology conference and I was really blown away. I experienced Kohut turning development on its head.
Sarah:
What leaped out for you then, Jeff?