Experiencing Selfhood Is Not "A Self"

Kohut's lasting and most important contribution to psychoanalytic clinical theory was his recognition that the experiencing of selfhood is always constituted, both developmentally and in psychoanalytic treatment, in a context of emotional interrelatedness. The experiencing of selfhood, he reali...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of psychoanalytic self psychology 2016-04, Vol.11 (2), p.183-187
Main Authors: Stolorow, Robert D., Atwood, George E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
bipolar self
Dilthey, Wilhelm (1833-1911)
experiencing selfhood
George Klein
Intelligence
Ludwig Wittgenstein
metaphysical illusion
Personhood
Psychoanalysis
Psychology
Self concept
Self psychology
Wilhelm Dilthey
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1889-1951)
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Summary:Kohut's lasting and most important contribution to psychoanalytic clinical theory was his recognition that the experiencing of selfhood is always constituted, both developmentally and in psychoanalytic treatment, in a context of emotional interrelatedness. The experiencing of selfhood, he realized, or of its collapse, is context-embedded through and through. The theoretical language of self psychology with its noun, "the self," reifies the experiencing of selfhood and transforms it into a metaphysical entity with thing-like properties, in effect undoing Kohut's hard-won clinical contextualizations. The language of such decontextualizing objectifications bewitches intelligence in order to evade the tragic dimension of finite human existing.
ISSN:1555-1024
2472-0038
1940-9141
2472-0046
DOI:10.1080/15551024.2016.1141611