Section VI Theories of the Self

Daniel Stern and Heinz Kohut represent contributors who departed significantly from the psychoanalytic theories in existence at the time. Although they do not share a common theoretical frame of reference, we group them together in this sec- tion because of their rejection of drive theory and their substitution of the concept of self for the tripartite model of the mind, the ego, the id, and the superego. However, each defines the concept “self” differently, although they appear to have in common the view that in speaking of the “sense of self” they refer to the person’s subjective experience of being a self. For Stern, the self is a psychological structure with definable attributes, although the characterization of these attributes does not exhaust what constitutes a self. Kohut provides two definitions, the first, which is a narrow definition, the “sub-ordinate” view of the self, refers to “a specific structure in the mental apparatus (Kohut, 1991 , p. 449). In the second definition, the “super ordinate” view of the self, the self is the “core of the personality” (p. 454), and is equivalent to the “person.” Stern, who came from a strong background in infant research, challenged the view that development can be reconstructed from adult psychopathology and that infants are not born with a sense of self. He proposed that development unfolds along the lines of a set of domains of the self , each domain beginning at a different point during development and each enduring throughout the rest of the life span. These domains rested on the empirical findings of infant research. Kohut challenged a different aspect of psychoanalytic metapsychology. His dis- sent was much more inclusive than that of Stern; and his work incorporated find- ings from the clinical work with his patients. The implications of his contributions were far-reaching and the impact of that work contributed to the overthrow of the hegemony of ego psychology. Kohut made no claim of proposing a developmental theory, because of that what we present material taken from scattered references in his work and elaborated on by Palombo (see Palombo, 2008) . Kohut proposed that the concept of selfobject functions is central to our in-depth understanding of psychic processes that occur in the self , by which he referred to the person, rather than to the ego. For Kohut, the unique sources from which people draw in order to develop are the specific psychological functions that others per- form, i.e., selfobject functions. These functions help the person maintain a sense of self-cohesion and well-being. Caregivers’ empathy is instrumental in addressing 242 Theories of the Self children’s needs. During our entire life span, we remain interrelated to others and dependent on others to provide us with the ambient needs that we require to survive. Both Stern and Kohut began from a positivist perspective that privileged data collection that would confirm or falsify hypotheses, Kohut initially being an unwa- vering ego psychologist and Stern an infant researcher. However, in their later work, both drifted into a hermeneutic perspective that made the construction of a data-based developmental theory problematic. In this respect, both theories incor- porate mixed metaphors and each model adheres to both organismic and contextual perspectives. Stern favored a narrative viewpoint, whereas Kohut’s contributions led to a hermeneutic, interpretive viewpoint.

References

Kohut , H. (1991) . Four basic concepts in self psychology (1979). In P. H. Ornstein (Ed.), The search for the self: Selected writings of Heinz Kohut: 1978-1981 (Vol. 4 , pp. 447 – 470 ). Madison , CT: International Universities Press . Palombo , J. (2008) . Self psychology theory. In B. A. Thyer (Ed.), Comprehensive handbook of social work and social welfare: Human behavior in the social environment (Vol. 2 , pp. 163 – 205 ). New Jersey : Wiley .