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Contemporary psychoanalysis emphasizes the interpersonal and the relational self, but Modell's book refocuses attention on the importance of the private self as the source of our deepest motivations
and basic values. Furthering Winnicott's concept of “the true self,” Modell's private self is experienced in solitude, may never be shared with others, and is the source of self-sufficiency and autonomy. It is not simply about approaching another's privacy with respect and tact. His private self is something more fundamental and more deeply isolated. Without private space, he asserts, one cannot remain psychologically alive.
Having established his position regarding the centrality of the private self, Modell calls attention to the paradoxical nature of self experience: the needs for dependence and autonomy coexist, to be both merged and separated. He is fully mindful of Winnicott's observation that the capacity to be alone is first established by being alone in the presence of another.
Containing little clinical material, this is an impressively rich theoretical contribution with concepts drawn from psychoanalysis, philosophy, literature, biography, infant psychiatry, and neuroscience. Modell's clarity of thought and generosity of spirit are admirable, and he is neither formulaic nor contentious. It is a carefully reasoned, restrained, and respectful approach to unresolved theoretical issues. Despite his dissatisfaction with aspects of Kohutian self psychology he is able to present his arguments in a constructive manner that sharpens and refines the issues under discussion.
Modell believes in Winnicott's conception of the unity of psyche and soma, and finds neurobiological support for the concept of the private self in Gerald Edelman's recent work. A principal thesis of Modell's book is that “Biology can now be seen as the source of personhood” (p. 51), and he argues that contemporary neuroscience supports Freud's conviction that psychoanalysis is grounded in biology.
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