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.
New scientific ideas in psychoanalysis are often labeled incorrect, as though the old theory must be guarded or protected. New ideas can either be translated back into the old language, or the old theory can be modified to accommodate the new findings. Goldberg describes three broad positions that have been taken in relation to Kohut's self psychology: 1) the old theory should accommodate the ideas of self psychology; 2) self psychology is markedly different from classical psychoanalysis and, as such, is an aberration; 3) self psychology is the primary theory, that is, all failures of oedipal resolution reflect underlying problems in the self-selfobject matrix. Goldberg suggests that these three positions are essentially three different clinical theories. In each instance he concludes that self psychology enhances our clinical understanding but he asserts that "this soon is seen as not a matter of translating one theory back into the other, but rather that the very facts that they gather are so theory-laden as to defy comparison." He concludes that psychoanalysts must understand and acquaint themselves with the working through of selfobject transferences to be able to test the utility of the ideas of self psychology.