8. Kohut’s Bipolar Self Revisited
Presenter: |
Jeffrey B. Rubin, PhD |
Chair: |
John A. Lindon, MD |
Self Psychology Page | 21th Conference
Program
Summary
Kohut richly contributed to opening up the territory of self-experience eclipsed by Freud and his successors. In this presentation I shall examine Kohut’s concept of the bipolar self. First, I shall briefly outline Kohut’s view of the self. Then I shall reflect upon several questions his evocative work has raised for me regarding the role of gender and culture in identity, the value of unintegrated states in creativity, spirituality, and mental health, and the patient’s role in constructing an identity. I will attempt to demonstrate that attending to the importance of gender and culture, unintegrated states of being, and the patient’s efforts at self-creation in the present will enrich Kohut’s pioneering investigations of self-experience and enrich self psychological conceptualizations of human subjectivity.