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This volume is a record of the symposium on self psychology held in Boston in the fall of 1980. It is organized into sections on developmental
research, psychoanalytic practice, psychotherapy, and a final dialectical exchange between Heinz Kohut and Paul Ornstein, representing the discipline of self psychology, and Robert Wallerstein, as its critic. The first and final sections are of greatest interest. The other papers are uneven in value but are interesting and contribute to a better understanding of self psychology and of the major criticisms leveled at it.
Beginning with his seminal work in 1971 and culminating with his 1977 modification, Kohut developed a theory of the self which he stated "adds something to traditional analysis; it does not substitute for it" (p. 400). Despite this disclaimer, many have reacted to the growth of interest in and the burgeoning of literature on the subject as a threat to established theory. To some extent, this is due to the enthusiasm of Kohut's adherents who are attempting to take the theory to a level of discourse that would elevate self psychology to the status of a new paradigm, reduce the explanatory power of conflict psychology by placing greater emphasis on deficit psychology, and water down the meaning and centrality of the oedipus complex and its pathological expressions by relegating them to the status of breakdown products created by a deficit-ridden self. These deficits, they indicate, result from failures in the empathic relationship between child and parents during crucial periods of development. The intimate attachment one has with the primary object, which has long been accepted as of vital importance in psychoanalytic theory, is given the term selfobject. In the traditional point of view, attainment of maturity results in the achievement of independence from the object and a clear separation of self from object. Self psychology, on the other hand, understands the union to be an enduring one throughout