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In his latest book, James Masterson focuses on what he considers to be a lacuna in the theory of normal development and of psychopathology: the lack of a concept of self that is integrated with object relations theory. He traces the evolution of his own thought in this direction, an evolution that he perceives as an inevitable progression.
The book is divided into three sections; the first is clinical and theoretical, the second sociocultural, and the third deals with die relationship of the “real self to creativity. In the first section, Masterson explicates his concept of the real self, describing its structure and development. The second section offers a comparative study of culturally determined variations in maternal acknowledgment, which is presented as the major factor in the development of a healthy real self. In the third section, Masterson relates his concept of the real self to creativity. He elaborates on this idea in the analysis of fairy tales, brief analyses of the life and work of Jean-Paul Sartre, the painter Eduard Munch, and an extended analysis of the life and work of Thomas Wolfe.
The book has an air of inevitability and a persuasive sweep, if Master-son's basic concepts are accepted. However, there does appear to be a fundamental problem in Masterson's conceptualization of the real self, a problem that repeats itself in his technical innovations for treatment of disorders of the real self. The real self concept is derived from Winnicott's conceptualization of the true self, but with an added reality function that seems to include bom reality testing and consideration for the needs of others. Winnicott, however, described the process of evolving and differentiating a true self as being both difficult and paradoxical. He perceived a complex interplay between socialization and differentiation.
Masterson's formulation gready simplifies this issue. In his concept, die real self includes the relationship to reality. The term “real” is defined as synonym