Chapter 5: Psychoanalytic Self Psychology

Since nature does not care how we choose to cut it up, to divide, and categorize it, we are free to devise our own forms; and this is true of physics as well as of psychology. The very idea of a discussion on models of the mind suggests that we can pick and choose among these models on some basis that goes beyond, or is parallel to, the question of what is the true, proper, and correct model. Is there a rational and factual way of assessing how the mind operates? Is there a practical way to choose the best model, or is it all a matter of personal comfort and choice? If nature does not care, then who can answer these questions?

Analysts of one persuasion or another usually see psycho-pathology as a series of developmental epochs, and they translate or interpret the patient's life to him according to their own world view or ideology or theory or even prejudice. Freud offered us a set of perspectives whereby we could understand what a patient was saying, by way of reenactment in the transference, at which point we could explain it to the patient by virtue of construction or reconstruction. Convinced as we may be of the truth or correctness of our theory or interpretations,