Chapter 11 Discussion of “A Self-Psychological Approach to Child Therapy: A Case Study”

Ruth Suth has presented us with a wonderful description of an extremely effective child therapy organized, understood, and effected in a self-psychological framework. We are indeed fortunate to have such a child case study because there are, as yet, precious few of them in print, and the value of work such as hers will surely be to encourage others along this same line. She herself contrasts her work with that done in accordance with classical theory, using a distinction pointed out by Ernest Wolf for that purpose, and it seems to me that in my discussion it may be useful to expand upon Suth's presentation from this perspective, comparing and contrasting her work with the classical child analytic model. You may remember that the principal distinction between self psychology and classical analysis identified by Wolf (1988), and referred to here by Suth, is that those analyzed in a classical way gain knowledge of themselves, as contrasted with those analyzed in a self-psychological way, who gain an improved sense of the subjective experience of themselves—in other words, consistent with the patient's own goals on entering treatment, the patient comes to feel better, and the why and hows seem only secondary. Keith's end of treatment observation, “I don't know how you did it, but you sure got rid of my fears,” would seem pertinent here, with Suth's chapter being an answer to Keith's query. For my own part, I'm not sure this particular distinction holds,