Self and Systems: Exploring Trends in Contemporary Self Psychology

The field of psychoanalytic self psychology has enjoyed a robust and fertile growth since its discovery and elaboration by Heinz Kohut in the 1970’s. From its earliest inception, self psychology radically changed the face of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy by both introducing novel ways of conceptualizing human development and the process of change, and by paving the way for innovative thinking linking the process of therapeutic growth to neuroscience and associated theories. The volume illuminates the major concepts of self psychology and their relevance to the behavioral sciences, as well as those whose theories draw on our contemporary understandings of the ways in which brain structure, mind and consciousness interface with one another. Of emphasis is the position of self psychological ideas vis-a-vis behavioral changes, neurobiology, neuropsychology, and other neurosciences.