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From: Jean Hargrave Yorky24@aol.com
Date: 10 Apr 1998
Interested to see that there have been quite a few messages left re general discussion. It would be interesting to talk about self psychology further, I am aware that there are some very learned sorts out there, my knowledge is quite basic. Some points that I would like to discuss include where Kohut moves from ego psychology to self psychology, where does the rest of the psyche fit into the picture? I felt that the remainder of the psyche was just an implied, unspecified "out there", am I missing something? Mirroring transference: I still struggle a little over this analogy, it seems to me that the therapist is mirrored, but not mirrored, in the sense that the patient is filtering the image he sees, it is not an inter subjective process, the communication is one way? The therapist is needed as a selfobject by the patient ,therefore the need is one-sided, on the side of the patient. Surely the therapeutic relationship is not one way, therefore the mirror transference is lacking somehow in a dynamic element. I accept that transference is about how the patient sees the therapist, otherwise it would be counter-transference, but it feels kind of static all the same.
Finally I am also wrestling with the impression that I have that the patient is a passive recipient of therapy, that perhaps Kohut sees the world from an "introverted" perspective, where painful inner conflicts and contradictions do not seem to fit into the picture, which is why Oedipal issues sit so uneasily with self psychology.
Any comments greatfully accepted!!
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