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.
This book is a work of love and dedication, as well as being an excellent text on technique. It is a deeply felt homage to the work of Heinz Kohut, a thoughtful explication and application of his ideas. There are three main sections. The first two concentrate on explaining the theory and the varied concepts of self psychology. The last section details the treatment of two patients and takes up two thirds of the book. There are a number of organizational features that make for efficient reading. For instance, the italicized statements summarizing and emphasizing the various points they wish to stress are done well. The lean prose throughout also makes for easy comprehension. There is no padding here.
In the first section, the core concepts of empathy, selfobjects, and selfobject transferences are clarified. Clinical vignettes illustrate the nuances of applying these concepts to actual cases. The book is appropriately titled since empathic attunement is the concept —one could say climate —that is explicated, illustrated, and stressed throughout: “the primary function of empathy is to make possible the painstaking unfolding of a patient's inner experience and the emergence of specific developmental needs (selfobject transferences).” It is not being “nice,” appearing “sympathetic,” or “curing through kindness.”
The second section, on treatment in self psychology, covers the whole spectrum of psychoanalytic treatment from specific processes, such as transmuting internalization, to general questions of mental health and illness. The bipolar nature of the development of a cohesive self is clarified