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By Robert D. Stolorow and Frank M. Lachmann. New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1980. 211 pp.
THE SEARCH FOR ONENESS. By Lloyd H. Silverman, Frank M. Lachmann, and Robert H. Milich. New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1982. 306 pp.
These two books share not only an author but a similar point of view. The authors feel changes are needed in the technique of treating patients with pregenital pathology and in treatment in general. They lean heavily on Kohut's contributions.1
Stolorow and Lachmann state that their "principal aims in this book are to elucidate the contribution of such developmental interferences and arrests to a variety of pathological states, and to spell out the implications of this understanding for the specific framing of analytic interventions and for conceptualizing the psychoanalytic situation and the course and therapeutic action of psychoanalytic therapy" (p. 5). By "such developmental interferences" they mean the lack of empathic responsiveness to the child's developmental needs by its caretakers. This interferes with the child's ability to attain self and object constancy and results in what the authors (and others) term developmental arrests.
In Part I, they present a functional definition of narcissism in reaction to the ambiguities they feel are inherent in the drive concept of narcissism: "Mental activity is narcissistic to the degree that its function is to maintain the structural cohesion, temporal stability and positive affective coloring of the self representation" (p. 10). They use this definition in reflecting on narcissism as a sexual perversion, as a mode of relating to the environment, as a developmental stage, as related to self-esteem, and as a diagnostic category. Their definition seeks to eliminate judgments of good or bad narcissism to help the therapist avoid reacting with repugnance