Working in the Terrain of the Damaged Self Core

Abstract

Working at deeper and more intimate parts of the self requires an altered treatment that corresponds to the client’s movement into these sacred parts of the self. Eric Berne theorized this space as where the client’s real self resides and where moments of real intimacy are achieved. Winnicott wrote about another part of the self that is more private. To symbolize this private quality, he placed this part of the self in the core and used the term the isolate. These two parts of the self require distinct types of therapy, and in this article the author explores characteristics of both. A clinical case demonstrates how one client and the author were able to create the therapeutic frame that enabled the client to reclaim and transform those parts of her self.

Keywords:

• Core self
• isolate
• real self
• body psychotherapy
• trauma
• transactional analysis
• depth psychotherapy
• Winnicott
• Eric Berne

Disclosure statement

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Edward T. Novak

Edward T. Novak, MA, is the book review editor for the Transactional Analysis Journal and a member of the editorial board. He is also a graduate of the National Institute for the Psychotherapies’ National Training Program in Contemporary Psychoanalysis and maintains a private practice in Akron, Ohio. He can be reached at 1653 Merriman Road, Suite 212, Akron, Ohio 44313, United States; email: [email protected].