Chapter 15 The Applicability of Self Psychology to Psychotherapy with the Elderly: With Emphasis on Twinship Selfobject Needs and Empathy as a Mode of Observation

Although, in his last book, Heinz Kohut wrote, “Much remains to be done; we need investigations of the special selfobject needs of the elderly” (Kohut, 1984, p. 194), very few works have been published addressing the applicability of self psychology to the elderly. A noteworthy contribution to this small literature is Muslin's (1992) The Psychotherapy of the Elderly Self.

The relative lack of attention to the relationship between self psychology and the elderly is surprising because the needs of the elderly are a good fit with the approach of self psychology. Kohut (1987) asserted: “In old age, as one's powers narrow down, one naturally has