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KMID : 0385320050160010013
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Journal of Korean Psychoanalytic Society
2005 Volume.16 No. 1 p.13 ~ p.27
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Therapist-Patient Relationship in the Self Psychology and the Intersubjentivity Theory
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Sohn Jin-Wook
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Abstract
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In this article the author introduced the key concepts of self psychology developed by Heinz Kohut and intersubjectivity theory proposed by Stolorow et al. Especially, the characteristics of therapist-patient relationships in these concepts and the therapeutic techniques of these theories have been discussed. The theory of self psychology has evolved around the development of the self and narcissism, and self psychologists suggest most psychopathology is related to developmental failure of the self and narcissism. According to this theory, as infants mature they attempt to capture the lost perfection of the early maternal-infant bond by resorting to one of two strategies─the grandiose self or the idealized parent imago. At this time, if adequate parental empathic responses─mirroring and idealizing functions of selfobjects─are given, the grandiose self is transformed into healthy ambition, and the idealized parent imago becomes internalized as ideals and values. But, the failure of parents in this respect leads to developmental arrest, reuslting in the vulnerable self, the hunger for selfobjects, and narcissistic psychopathology. In self psychological therapy, therapists have to understand patients empathically and proffer mirroring and idealizing functioning to patients as selfobjects to strengthen self cohesion and to develop or improve the sense of self. In summary, from the self psychological perspective, psychopathology is rooted in the developmental deficit, the treatment is based on the therapist’s empathy and introspection─the so-calle investigatory stance of empathic-introspective inquiry. These self psychological psychopathology and therapeutic techniques are very different from those of classical psychoanalysis, which emphasize the therapist’s neutrality and patient’s abstinence to resolve intrapsychic conflicts. After Kohut, Stolorow et al. proposed the intersubjectivity theory, all psychopathology has been rooted in the interaction of the subjective worlds of the infant and the caregiver in the early years, and the patient’s attitude and the change of symptoms during the treatment should to be understood in terms of the interaction of the two subjective worlds of the patient and the therapist─the so-called intersubjective contexts. The essence of the therapeutic technique of this theory is to elucidate the problems in the patient’s subjective reality and form the transference bond between the patient and the therapist through sustained empathic inquiry.
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KEYWORD
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Self psychology, Intersubjectivity, Therapist-patient relationship, Empathic-introspective stance
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