2nd Edition
Heinz Kohut and the Psychology of the Self
1. On Listening 2. Introduction 3. The Viennese Chicagoan, Ernest S. Wolf 4. The Classical Foundation of Kohut’s Thought 5. Early Papers: Emerging Strands of a New Cloth 6. Toward a Psychology of the Self 7. Analysis of the Self: Part I, The Idealized Parental Imago 8. Analysis of the Self: Part II, The Grandiose Self 9. The Restoration of the Self: Part I, Innovations in Theory 10. The Restoration of the Self: Part II, Clinical Considerations 11. How Does Analysis Cure? Part I, Theoretical Reflections 12. How Does Analysis Cure? Part II, The Therapeutic Process Reconsidered 13. Kohut’s Last words 14. Critique and Conclusions 15. Afterword The Works of Heinz Kohut Glossary Index
Biography
Allen M. Siegel, MD, has been a student of Heinz Kohut’s psychology of the self for 50 years. He is a psychoanalyst in private practice, Chicago.
Paige LaCava, PhD, LCPC, is a psychotherapist in private practice. She enjoys writing about clinical theory.
'Allen Siegel’s 1996 classic, Heinz Kohut and the Psychology of the Self, has been an influential reference and teaching tool for decades. Based on the author’s extensive clinical experience it explicates the at-times turgid writings of Kohut into clear understandable terms. In this second edition Siegel is joined by Paige LaCava, also a therapist and teacher in touch with today’s learners. It enriches the original with a new Preface and Introduction, and an interesting essay On Listening drawn from their Kohut-derived listening stance. An Afterword describes both their individual interests in Kohut and their collaborative work on this book.'
Jonathan F. Borus, MD, Stanley Cobb Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
'Allen Siegel and Paige LaCava trace the revolutionary journey of Heinz Kohut who dared to redefine the nature of mental life through the nuanced language of empathy and the experience of the self. Using vivid clinical vignettes and philosophical insight the book examines what it means to be mentally ill—and what it means to be whole. It rethinks the foundations of psychological data, offering a compelling argument that empathy is not merely a tool but the very method through which the mind reveals itself.'
David Solomon, MD
'In the first edition of Heinz Kohut and the Psychology of the Self, Siegel masterfully describes how Freud’s theories laid groundwork for what became self psychology. In this 2nd edition, Siegel is joined by Paige LaCava in a creative expansion. They go beyond the mapping of self psychology’s origins and features, adding current cultural perspectives. The reader feels invited into the world of these clinicians who share their experience-near process. Long gone is the distant “objective" therapist and the style of reporter-like writing.
Read this engaging book to explore how Kohut’s theory still informs our ever-changing psychodynamic world.'
Constance Goldberg, MS, Faculty Emerita, The Institute for Clinical Social Work, Chicago
