Introduction

This fifth volume in the Progress in Self Psychology series contains 12 papers and two comments, or “reflections,” covering a wide range of subjects: from dreams and dreaming, to the self in Jung and Kohut; from infant and child observation, to the development of the self in girls and women; from the “therapeutic experience,” to such specific clinical topics as eating disorders, substance abuse, suicide, and unresolvable fixations; from a biological analysis of the negative therapeutic reaction, to the future of psychoanalysis and the future analyst. These papers, grounded in the accumulated knowledge of the past, represent some of the most recent work in our field and point toward further advances in the future. We believe the reader will be well rewarded by their study.

When Arnold Goldberg asked if I would write this introduction, he indicated that I might, if I wished, reflect generally on the current state of self psychology. Needless to say this was tempting, and not being of an ascetic bent, I resolved on a course of gratification rather than renunciation. It became, therefore, my plan to accept Goldberg's offer and give my perspective on our field of study, in the hope that this would serve as a useful orientation for the reader. In pursuit of this goal, I shall first comment upon the milieu in which self psychology had its origin; then upon current questions, disagreements, and opinions regarding focal points of Kohut's theories; and finally upon the papers published in this volume.

This introduction is a propitious opportunity for such an enterprise,