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With the recent attention given by psychoanalysts and analytical psychologists to the meaning and definition of the self, this book should be of considerable interest. Masterson's work is grounded in developmental object relations theory, which he claims suffers from a lack of a concept of the self. By incorporating a theory of the self, Masterson shifts the focus—the microscope of observation and study—in development and disorder from the object and object relations to the self: instead of thinking primarily in terms of objects and ego, we can think of the self with its objects and its ego. After all, Masterson argues, the daily work of a therapist revolves around a person with a self, not a collection of objects and ego.
From a cursory review of psychoanalytic theories of the self, Masterson proceeds to outline his understanding of the self, drawn primarily from Winnicott's theory of the true and false self. Erikson's work on the self aspect of identity formation is also an important influence on Masterson's ideas concerning the relationship between the self and ego as parallel partners in development and psychopathology. In using the term ‘real self’, Masterson makes it clear that he is ‘referring to both the collective subordinate self-representations and their supraordinate organization’. The term ‘real self’ is used specifically to help differentiate the self from the false self of the borderline or narcissistic patient.
The false self refers to a defence system which guards against separation anxiety and ‘abandonment depression’ caused by the activation of the real self. In order for the real self to emerge successfully and assume its full capacities, Masterson argues, it must be identified, acknowledged and supported by the parents in the child's early development. Impairment of the real self results when the dependency needs of the parents are denied and projected onto the child who in turn adopts a defensive self representation; this might, for example, take