A Fresh Look at Psychoanalysis: The View From Self Psychology

Goldberg uses the questions posed by self psychology as point of entry to a thoughtful consideration of issues with which every clinician wrestles: the scientific status analysis, the relationships among its competing theories, the role of empathy in analytic method, and the place of the "self" in the analyst's explanatory strategies. Clinical chapters show how the notion of the self can provide organizing insights into little-appreciated character structures.

Table of Contents:
I. Theory  1. The Three Theories of Psychoanalysis  2. One Theory or More?  3. Translation between Psychoanalytic Theories  4. The Tension between Realism and Relativism in Psychoanalysis  II. Empathy  5. Self Psychology and External Reality  6. Compassion, Empathy, and Understanding  7. Experience: Near, Distant, and Absent  8. On the Scientific Study of Empathy  9. The Unempathic Child  III. Character  10. The Structure of the Self  11. On the Nature of the "Misfit"  12. The Wishy-Washy Personality  IV. Clinical Papers  13. Comments on Rules and Psychotherapy  14. Psychoanalysis and Negotiation  15. Selfobjects and Self-Control  16. Some Notes on the Mirror  17. The Place of Apology in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy  18. Post-Termination

Review :
"[Goldberg] insists that we all approach clinical material with certain values and theoretical points of view that inform and organize that clinical material. He provides arguments and asks questions that stretch our minds and help us 'search for more.' This is an excellent book for psychoanalysts who want to think about what they do." - Arthur Malin, M.D., Psychoanalytic Quarterly "[Goldberg] invites us to wrestle with such complex clinical issues as the role of apology in psychoanalysis and the process of posttermination and challenges us to take a new look at perhaps familiar vistas." - Karen R. Strupp, Contemporary Psychology