The Emerging Paradigm of Relational Self Psychology: An Historical Perspective

ABSTRACT

This article describes the evolution of a critical dimension of self psychology that has evolved since Heinz Kohut’s death, one characterized by the transition from a one-person to a two-person psychology. This transition involved, initially, the change in the analyst’s role as limited to interpreting the patient’s intrapsychically generated selfobject experiences of development, rupture, and repair, to an emergence into full personhood; second, a new emphasis on the analyst’s subjectivity participating in a bi-directional relationship of mutuality rather than a unidirectional provision of needed functions; and finally, an overall approach to the therapeutic process as a complex, dynamic system. This emergent paradigm within self psychology we term relational self psychology. We illustrate its evolution through a historical review of critical papers that extended and transformed Kohut’s original vision, which already contained the seeds of a genuinely intersubjective and relational model. We outline these changes in four sections: (I) “Empathy and Beyond,” detailing the concept’s evolution within Kohut’s writing and its subsequent elaboration; (II) “From Provision to Mutuality,” describing the movement beyond Kohut’s focus on understanding and explaining and the mutative force of optimal frustration; (III) “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby,” discussing infant research emphasizing face-to-face interaction and mutual regulation moving into the development of a truly bi-directional model of therapeutic action; and finally, (IV) “From Dyads to Systems,” integrating self psychology into a broader intersubjective, relational, dynamic system and theoretical context. Each section concludes with a bibliography of seminal-related articles that may offer a syllabus for further study.

KEYWORDS:

• Relational self psychology
• self psychology
• Kohut
• intersubjectivity
• selfobject

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Barry Magid

Barry Magid, MD is a member of the faculty of The Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy and the Stephen Mitchell Center for Relational Studies and a past member of the Executive Board of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP). He is the author of “Ordinary Mind: Exploring the Common Ground of Zen and Psychotherapy„ (Wisdom 2000) and “Nothing Is Hidden: The Psychology of Zen Koans” (Wisdom 2013) and editor of “Freud’s Case Studies: Self Psychological Perspectives” (Analytic Press 1993) and (with Robert Rosenbaum)  “What’s Wrong with Mindfulness (and What Isn’t)„ (Wisdom 2016). His most recent papers, co-authored with Estelle Shane, include “Relational Self Psychology” (2017) and “The Restoration of the Selfobject “(2018).

James Fosshage

James Fosshage, PhD, is Founding President of the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP) and Advisory Board Member, International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP).   He is Co-founder, Board Director, Supervisor and Faculty member of the National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NYC) and NIP’s National Training Program; Founding Faculty Member, Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity (NYC); Clinical Professor of Psychology and Consultant of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (Co-Founder of the Relational Track).  Author of numerous psychoanalytic publications, including 10 books, his last book, co-authored with Joseph Lichtenberg and Frank Lachmann, is entitled Narrative and Meaning (2017).  He maintains a private practice in New York City and Tenafly, N.J.   His website is www.jamesfosshage.net.

Estelle Shane

Estelle Shane, PhD, is Training/Supervising analyst and faculty at the New Center for Psychoanalysis and Founding Member, Board Member, Training/supervising Analyst and faculty at the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis. She is a Founder and Board Member of International Association of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP), and Adviser for International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP).  She is on the Editorial Boards of Psychoanalytic Inquiry and Psychoanalysis Self and Context.  She has published numerous articles and has co-authored one book.