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.
The author draws from Kohut's concepts of self and selfobject to examine the therapeutic changes that occurred during the therapy of a twenty-eight-year-old woman suffering from "a profound disturbance in her capacity to feel alive." The patient had a need "to establish a bond with another person in order to support an extremely tenuous inner experience," and in doing so lost her individuality. In the course of therapy the unmarried patient became pregnant, and the pregnancy became a critical time in the therapy. The patient kept the child and later brought the infant to her therapy sessions. The author did not evaluate the patient's decisions, but maintained "interested attention to subjective process," with a focus on the patient's autonomy. In the course of therapy there was a progressive consolidation and firming of the patient's self-structure; she saw herself as a center of initiative and volition and was able to express her needs and wishes to others. Wolfe believes that patients may attempt to strengthen and differentiate their self-experience through relationship with the therapist, and that transference is a necessary condition for maintaining or restoring the self-experience.