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“The central thesis of this book,” Krueger writes,
is that an individual's mature sense of self contains at its core, a cohesive, distinct and accurate body self. Compromise of this development can result in arrest as early as the first weeks of life. … In affected individuals these preverbal experiences … may fail to acknowledge and confirm a body self separate from the mother.
He goes on:
The pathological manifestations of arrested development along with illustrative clinical material and integration constitute the middle section [of this book]. The final section includes a discussion of the clinical application of these principles. … The ineffectiveness experienced by these individuals is at the leading edge in both the developmental and psychodynamic scenario of the narcissistic pathology regardless of the manifestations. The therapeutic applications include necessarily the understanding of treatment in the disorders of the self in which impulsivity and addictions are prominent.
This is what Krueger sets out to do, and he does it admirably, employing, in addition to clinical illustrations, “developmental data and reconstructions” garnered from, among other sources, drawings, psychological testing, videotape analysis and feedback, psychodrama, and material from actual family therapy sessions.
Yet this achievement is at the same time the fault of the book. For Krueger's approach to his subject falls within a genre. The genre is, “As the twig is bent … so grows the tree.” This was for years the basis for the construction of many of the most endearing books in the field, among them Freud's own case histories and Erikson's various childhoods. But I am not at all sure this genre serves us very well any more.
In the “twig” genre there is a “Once upon a time.” This, of course, is the trauma. The middle part is the padiology that strives bravely, but too often too well, to cope with and adapt to the trauma that gave it birth. The end is the twisted tree. Then the theme is r