Self Psychology:
A Relational Psychodynamic
Model
Self Psychology as a Theoretical
Framework
• Heinz Kohut (1971, 1977) evolved self
psychology concepts
• Self-esteem and sense of self dependent on
quality or relationships with parental figures
• Self-object: person who is experienced
intrapsychically
– Self-object must be availability to the infant for its
development of Self
Three Self Object Relationships
• Mirroring self-object: recognizes a
child’s capabilities and talents
• Idealizing self-object: links a child with
admired caregivers
• Twinship self-object: provides a sense of
being the same
Internalization of Self-objects
• Self-objects perform adaptive functions of
soothing and tension regulation
• Transmuting internalization: child is gradually
able to perform soothing and tension regulation
functions in absence of original self-object
Impairments with Internalization of Self
Objects
• Without positive self-object experiences
internalization of a “healthy self” cannot occur
– Shame, humiliation, helplessness the result of selfobject failure
• True Self development hindered when child
sacrifices expressing needs because self-object
support is perceived as unavailable
– Person complies with needs of other at expense of
her/his True Self development (merger bond)
– Failure to bond with caregiver leaves individual
feeling isolated and depressed
Impairments with Internalization of Self
Objects (cont.)
• When early narcissistic needs unmet, child
(adult) is continually searching for nurturing and
validating self-object experiences
• If self becomes strengthened through self-object
responsiveness (i.e. through treatment) person
will feel less shameful about needs for
vulnerability and nurturing
– Will be able to give to others, emotionally, without
feeling anxiety about another’s needs
Maturity: Self Psychology Perspective
• Maturity ability to evoke and engage in mutually
enriching self-object relationships
• Emotionally healthy individual has ability to
choose self-objects based on adult development
levels, not early narcissistic needs
Empathy
• Kohut (1959): Psychological development evolves from
attunement between self and self-objects
– Experiencing attunement allows self to evolve from early,
narcissistic needs to capacity for empathic attunement to others
• Empathy as “vicarious introspection: ability of therapist to
investigate inner world of client
• Empathy as tool through which therapist gathers
psychological information
• Defense and resistance viewed as normal ways to
protect oneself from pain or injury
– Therapist seeks to understand what client fears in life and in the
worker client relationship
• Empathy frames the working alliance
Role of the Therapist in Self Psychology
• Experience of therapist by client NOT solely based on
past “representations
• Client's feelings about worker based on her past
experiences, current behaviors with others and with
therapist
• Therapist needs to share her experience of client with
that person
• Through “transmuting internalization” of the therapist as
calming (mirroring) and competent (idealizing) client can
learn to self-soothe, self-comfort and self-empathize
• Therapist becomes a new “self-object”
• This process enables client to find more mature selfobject relationships in her life
Role of the Therapist in Self Psychology
• Empathic failure: when the client does not feel the
worker has been attuned to his self-object needs
– Perfect empathic attunement is not always possible
– Not problematic as long as therapist communicated to client the
impact of empathic failure on the person
– Client learns to tolerate frustration in the same way a young child
is helped by parents who do not gratify every need
• Learning to deal with frustration, through an empathic
relationship with therapist, allows client to choose more
emotionally sustaining self-objects and to experience
empathy for others
Self Psychology: Treating Children
• Rage, depression, clinging, lack of impulse control,
inhibition in social skills and learning can result from lack
of caregiver responses to appropriate childhood needs
and wishes
• Driven, repetitious behaviors seen as desperate
attempts to achieve
recognition
and
response to vital
Self Psychology:
Treating
Children
needs
– Mirroring self-objects: to be affirmed
– Idealizing self-objects: to merge with strength and wisdom
• Therapist’s needs are to understand the self-object
needs presented by the child
• With children, don’t interpret their behavior, just respond
to their needs
Self Psychology: Treating Adolescents
• Adolescent brings “turmoil” through
loosening of ties to primary self-objects
• Parental self-objects compared to peers in
values and ideals
• Ongoing process of “the experience of the
self and other in parents and children”
– Requires strength and flexibility
Self Psychology and Learning Disorders
in Children and Adolescents
• Palombo (1995): Disorders of the self do not
cause learning disorders since they are
neurologically based
– However, neurological weaknesses can give rise to
disorders of the self
– Child’s thoughts and behaviors are neurologically
based and not motivated by psychological factors
• When child cannot make sense of her
experiences and she receives negative
feedback from family or educators, child can
have problems with self esteem and self concept
Self Psychology and Learning Disorders
in Children and Adolescents (cont.)
• Ideal self-object relationships for learning
disabled youth:
– Direct verbal explanations to clarify confusion
– Soothing guidance on how to deal with
problems
– Emotionally calm presence to reduce anxiety
• Therapist must be a self-object for both
child and the caregiver
Self Psychology and the Elderly
• Integrity vs. despair ( developmental ask of last life cycle):
maintaining self esteem in the wake of biological, psychological and
social stressors
• Symptoms of disorders of self in seniors:
– Sensitivity to slights and insults
– Reactive anger and withdrawal in response to rejection or
disappointment
– Hypochondriasis
– Overdependence on others for approval
– Viewing others not as separate but as extensions of self
– Over-emphasis on psychical appearance, possessions and past
accomplishments to cope with diminished self esteem
• Major goal of therapy with elderly is restoration of self esteem
– Reminiscence about past
– Mourning loss of self-object relationships
– Listening to past narcissistic injuries
Self Psychology and Brief Treatment
• Self-psychology is applicable to brief treatment
• Clients seek treatment because of a loss of meaningful self-object
experiences
– Causes loss of sense of self
• Goal: enhance client’s self esteem and restore her to pre-crisis
functioning
• Therapeutic process of “empathic investigation," through mirroring,
idealizing and twinship functions
• Understanding client’s subjective experiences, providing “self-object
responsiveness” restores self-cohesion and decreases symptom
logy
• Tasks of therapist:
– Helps patient appreciate the legitimacy of her needs and feelings
– Promotes self awareness, understanding and acceptance
Self Psychology and Group Treatment
• Self psychology has been effective in group treatment
with clients having self esteem problems
• The group can provide affirming self-object relationships
• 12 Step meetings:
– Mirroring transference through sharing others with same
experiences
– Idealizing transference through “sponsors” and subscribing to
the “Steps”
– Twinship transference through the “we” experience of mutual aid
and peer support
Self Psychology and Practice Evaluation
• “Success” would be client's ability to identify and
seek out positive self-objects within her
surroundings
• Treatment provides a “reparative emotional
experience” of being empathically understood
and nontraumatically frustrated in a way that
promotes self-identity and self-esteem
• Kohut: the “internal world” should only be
studies through the therapist’s empathy
Self Psychology and Practice Evaluation
(cont.)
• Qualitative research designs focusing on validity
of meaning (comparing therapist and client
responses)
• Quantitative assessment of change in self
esteem could be assessed by measures
addressing that concept ( i.e. Rosenberg Self
Esteem scale)
Ending in Self Psychology: the Therapist
Experience
• At end of treatment, therapist may experience:
– “ loss of the therapy as a self-object experience that
may have provided mastery, growth and professional
stability”
Self Psychology: Summary
• Kohut pioneered the term empathy as a clinical concept
plus an important component of the healing process
• Empathy more than “feeling for the client”
– Empathy as the “scientific tool” of psychotherapy
– Practitioner has only one tool; that tool is herself
– “Empathy is means by which psychological observer gathers
information about the inner world of the human experience”
• Empathy is active listening through:
– Hearing the client’s story
– Communicating understanding of that story and its impact
on the client’s life
• Being understood by the therapist gives the client an
affirming experience vital for establishing other
meaningful relationships