REPUBLIKA SRBIJA

VISOKA ŠKOLA STRUKOVNIH STUDIJA

BEOGRADSKA POLITEHNIKA
BEOGRAD

SEMINARSKI RAD

Ana Jovanović

BEOGRAD, 2015.
 REPUBLIKA SRBIJA
VISOKA ŠKOLA STRUKOVNIH STUDIJA
BEOGRADSKA POLITEHNIKA
BEOGRAD

SEMINARSKI RAD

Element ocene 1 - kvalitet seminarskog rada _____poena

Element ocene 2 - prezentacija seminarskog rada _____poena
Element ocene 3 - odbrana seminarskog rada _____poena
Konačna ocena seminarskog rada ______ (_________)

Mentor: Student:

Dr Milorad Todorović Ana Jovanović 263/2012

OSNOVNE STRUKOVNE STUDIJE

Odeljenje za tehnologije
Studijski program: Menadžment kvalitetom
Predmet: Psihologija rada

Beograd, 2015.
III
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Od ovih selektivnih procesa izranja, verovatno tokom druge godine života, jezgrovni self,
koje, kao što je rečeno, je trenutno konceptualizovano kao bipolarna struktura; arhaične
jezgrovne ambicije stvaraju jedan pol, arhaični jezgrovni ideali drugi. Tenzioni spoj između
ova dva pola poboljšava razvoj detetovih jezgrovnih veština i talenata rudimentarnih veština i
talenata koje će se postepeno razviti u one koje će odrasli korisiti u službi produktivnosti i
kreativnosti njegovog zrelog selfa.

Snaga ova tri glavna činioca selfa, izbor njihovih specifičnih sadržaja, priroda njihovog
odnosa, npr. koji od njih će na kraju predominirati i njihov napredak prema zrelosti i
potencijalnom ispunjenju kroz kreativne postupke, će biti manji pod uticajem od strane
odgovora objekta selfa koji su oblikovani filozofijom razvoja deteta nasuprot onima koji
izražavaju strane njihovog jezgrovnog selfa. Drugim rečima, nije toliko do toga šta roditelji
što će uticati na karakter detetovog selfa, nego šta roditelji jesu. Ako su roditelji usklađeni sa
svojim potrebama da sijaju i da uspeju tako da ove potrebe budu realistično ispunjene ako,
drugim rečima je samopouzdanje roditelja obezbeđeno, onda će ponosni egzibicionizam ranog
razvoja njihovog deteta biti prihvaćeno adekvatno. Međutim, teški su udarci koje može da
primi dete čija je grandioznost izložena realnostima života, ponosni osmeh roditelja će održati
živim nešto od origonalne omnipotentnosti, kako bi se održala jezgrovnost samopouzdanja i
unutrašnja sigurnost vezana za vrednost jedne osobe što će omogućiti zdravlje iste kroz ceo
njegov život. Isto važi i u odnosu na naše ideale. Koliko god da su velika razočarenja dok mi
otkrivamo slabosti i ograničenja idealizovanih objekata selfa našeg ranog života, njihovo
samopouzdanje dok su nas nosili dok smo bili bebe, njihova sigurnost kada su dozvolili nama
da sjedinjimo naše anksiozne selfe sa njihovim mirom kroz njihove mirne glasove ili kroz
našu bliskost sa njihovim opuštenim telima dok su nas držali će biti zadržano kod nas kao
jezgro snage naših vodećih ideala i mirnoće koju iskusimo dok živimo naše živote vođene
našim unutrašnjim ciljevima.

Samo u svetlu naših cenjenja u odnosu na ključne uticaje ispoljenih na razvoj selfa od strane
ličnosti objekata selfa detinjstva mi možemo da nađemo tvorbene korenove poremećaja selfa.
Psihoanalitičke istorije slučajeva su imale tendencije da naglašavaju izvesne dramatične
događaje, izvesne strahovito traumatične događaje od svedočanstva deteta primalnoj sceni „do
gubitka roditelja u detinjstvu“. Ali sada smo više inklinirani mišljenju da ti traumatični
događaji nisu ništa drugo nego putokazi za prave patagonske faktore, nepotpuna atmosfera
kojoj je dete bilo izloženo tokom godina kada je njegov self uspostavljen. Uzeti sami za sebe,
drugim rečima, ovi događaji ostavljaju manje teže poremećaje u njihovom ostvarivanju nego
hronična sredina stvorena od strane duboko ukorenjenih pristupa objekata selfa, pošto čak i
ranjiv self, u procesu formiranja, može da se nosi sa ozbiljnim traumama ako se nalazi u
zdravom miljeu punom podrške. Suština zdrave spoljašnje sredine za rastući self deteta je
zdrav, usklađen roditeljski self koji je usaglašen sa promenjljivim promenama deteta. To
može, sa sjajem deljene radosti, duplirati grandiozno prikazivanje deteta u jednom trenutku, i
možda trenutak kasnije, u slučaju da dete postane teskobno i previše stimulisano njegovim ili
njenim egzibicionizmom, sprečiće takvo izlaganje tako što će usvojiti realistični pristup u
odnosu na ograničenja deteta. Takve optimalne frustracije deteta treba da budu kopirane i da
se spoje u idealizovane objekte svojstva, zajedno sa optimalnim nagrađivanjima, kako bi se
stvarala adekvatna matrica koja podržava razvoj selfa.

Neki roditelji, međutim, nisu adekvatno osetljivi za potrebe deteta ali će ipak da odgovore na
potrebe njihovog nesigurno uspostavljenog selfa. Evo dve karakteristične ilustracije
patogenskih neuspeha objekata selfa. Tiču se tipičnih događaja koji izranjaju često tokom
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analize pacijenata sa narcističkim poremećajem ličnosti tokom prenosnog ponavljanja tih

iskustva detinjstva koji su ometali normalan razvoj selfa. Ovde moramo dodati da su epizode
koje su ovde predstavljene u narednim vinjetama su ukazane za patogensko okruženje
detinjstva samo ako čine deo hroničnog pristupa objekata selfa ako su se dogodile kao
posledice roditeljevog neizbežnog povremenog neuspeha.

Prva ilustracija: Mala devojčica dođe kući iz škole željna toga da ispriča majci o velikom
uspehu. Ali majka, umesto da sluša s ponosom, skreće razgovor sa deteta na nju samu i
počinje da priča o svojim uspesima koji bacaju senku na uspehe njene male ćerke.

Druga ilustracija: Mali dečak je željan idealizovanja njegovog oca. Želi da mu otac ispriča o
životu i borbama koje je pokretao i u kojima je pobeđivao. Ali umesto da sa radošću radi u
skladu sa potrebama sina, otac se oseća posramljenim zbog zahteva. Oseća se umorno i
dosadno, napuštajući kuću nađe privremeni izvor životnosti za svoj oslabljen self u kafani,
kroz piće i razgovor pun uzajamne podrške sa prijateljima.

Psihopatologija i simptomatologija

Sada ćemo prikazati neke sindrome u patologiji selfa, koji izranjaju kao posledica razvojnih
neuspeha opisanih u predhodnom odeljku. Jasno je da u mnogim čak i u većini instance
različitih oblika poremećaja selfa koje izdvojimo jedno u odnosu na drugo u narednoj
klasifikaciji neće imati jasno prepoznatljiv u pojedinim pacijentima. Mešavine iskustava
karakterističnih za različite tipove će često biti prisutni, čak češće jedan jedini pacijent će
iskusiti jedno ili drugo patološko stanje selfa u različitim trenutcima, često čak u vrlo uskom
vremenskom intervalu. Sledeći opisi bi trebalo da budu od pomoći u kliničkom ispitivanju
zato što ukazuju na česte skupove iskustava.

Podcenjen self . Ovo je hronično ili povratno stanje selfa, tendencija za njen opstanak je
posledica drugog nedostatka stimulativnog odgovora od strane objekata selfa u detinjstvu i
imaju nedostatak vitalnosti. Oni doživljavaju sebe kao dosadne i apatične, i drugi ih
doživljavaju na isti način. Pojedinci čiji urođen self nije imalo dovoljno odgovora će koristiti
bilo koje prisutne stimuluse da bi stvorili lažno uzbuđenje da bi uklonili bolni osećaj mrtvila
koje ima tendencu da ih obuhvati. Deca primenjuju resurse koji su primereni za njihovu
razvojnu fazu – kao što je sudaranje glavama među odojčadi, kompulzivna masturbacija u
kasnijem detinjstvu, kaskaderske aktivnosti u adolescenciji. Odrasli imaju na raspolaganju čak
i širi izbor alatki za samostimulaciju – npr. U seksualnoj sferi, zavisničke promiskuitetne
aktivnosti i razne perverzije, i, u neseksualnoj sferi, aktivnosti kao kockanje; uzbuđenje
uzrokovano drogama i alkoholom i životni stil hipersocijalnosti. Ako analitičar uspe da
probije odbrambrenu fasadu koju čine ove aktivnosti, bez izuzetaka će naći praznu depresiju.
Prototipsko je kompulzivno masturbiranje usamljene, „nekopirane“ dece. Nije zdrav nagonski
pritisak koji vodi beskrajno ponavljano masturbiranje. Ali pokušaj zamenjivanja senzacije
zadovoljstva u delovima tela (erogenim zonama) kada nije moguća radost egzibicijom
totalnog selfa.

Fragmentiran self . Ovo je hronično ili povratno stanje selfa čija tendenca za postojanje je
posledica nedostatka integrišućih odgovora urođenom selfu u njegovoj potpunosti od strane
objekta selfa u detinjstvu. Ponekad rasparčanost je manjeg stepena i kraćeg trajanja. Takvi
slučajevi se dešavaju u svima nama kada je naše samopouzdanje bilo trošeno duže vreme i
kada nije bilo načina da se obnovi. Svima nama može da se desi da idemo kući posle dana
tokom kog smo pretrpeli nizove neuspeha koji remete samopouzdanje. Naš hod i držanje tela
 6

neće biti tako graciozni u tim trenutcima, naši pokreti će biti nespretni, i čak naše mentalne
funkcije će pokazivati znakove nekordinisanosti. Naši pacijenti sa narcističkim poremećajem
ličnosti neće imati samo sklonost da reaguju sa takvim simptomima rasparčavanja na čak i
mala razočarenja, već će njihovi simptomi biti čak i teži. Ako inače normalno pristojno
obučen pacijent dođe u kancelariju neuredno obučen, ako njegova kravata je grozno
neusklađena i ako boja njegovih čarapa ne ide sa bojom cipela, obično nećemo pogrešiti ako
počnemo da pretražujemo naše pamćenje pitanjem da li smo bili neempatični u poslednjoj
sesiji, da li nismo uspeli da prepoznamo narcističku potrebu. Ozbiljniji stepeni rasparčavanja
će konačno biti viđeni tokom psihoanalitičkog lečenja najozbiljnije poremećenih pacijenata sa
narcističkim poremećajem ličnosti. Ovde pacijent može da reaguje na čak i najmanja
neprijatna iznenađenja, bilo od strane analitičara ili u njegovom svakodnevnom životu, sa
dubokim gubitkom smisla za kontinuitet njegovog selfa u vremenu i kohezivnosti u svemiru
istog – psihičko stanje koje dovodi do teške teskobe. Npr. Osećanje da razni delovi tela
prestaju da budu zajedno zahvaljujući snažnoj zdravoj svesnosti sveukupnosti tela selfa vode
strahovanju koje se tiče fragmenata tela često izraženom od strane pacijenta u obliku
hipohondarske brige koja se tiče njegovog zdravlja. Za razliku od hronične hipohondarske
preokupacije koja se nalazi u nekim psihozama, čak i najteži i kvazizabludne analogne brige u
narcističkom poremećaju ličnosti su direktna posledica neke specifične, prepoznatljive
narcističke povrede, i one nestaju, često sa dramatičnom brzinom, čim se most empatije sa
saosećajnim objektom selfa uspostavi. Čest niz događaja tokom analize pacijenata koji su
uspostavili manji će ukazati na ovo. Kada je duplirajući transfer izbalansiran, pacijent,
osećajući analitičarevu empatičnu pažnju, oseća se celovito i samoprihvatajuće. Međutim u
slučaju pogrešne interpretacije – npr.; posle sesije u kojoj je analitičar pojasnio samom
pacijentu neke detalje o psihičkom životu samog pacijenta, tok je u stvari (posle nekog
napredka u lečenju npr., ili posle nekog spoljašnjeg uspeha) pacijent je ponudio svoj potpuni
self za prihvatanje – pacijentu osećanje celovitosti koje je bilo održavano putem transfera
nestaje. To se obnovi kada analitičar ponovo ostvari empatijsku vezu sa objektom selfa tako
što ispravno interpretira redosled događaja koji je vodio u njeno rasparčavanje.

Previše stimulisan self . Tendencija za ispoljavanjem povratnih stanja tokom kojih je self
previše stimulisan je posledica neempatičnih, preteranih ili odgovora neprimerenih fazi od
strane objekata selfa tokom detinjstva, ili u odnosu na aktivnosti grandioznog
egzibicionističkog pola detetovog urođenog selfa ili u odnosu na aktivnosti koji čuva vodeće
ideale ili u odnosu na oba.

Ako je grandiozno egzibicionistički pol selfa osobe bio izložen neempatičkoj preteranoj
stimulaciji u detinjstvu, onda nikakav zdravi sjaj zadovoljstva neće biti dobijen iz spoljašnjeg
uspeha. Sa druge strane, pošto su ovi ljudi preplavljivani nerealnim, arhaičnim fantazijama
veličine koji dovode do bolne tenzije i teskobe, izbegavaće situacije u kojima bi mogli da
postanu centar pažnje. U nekim pojedincima kreativnost može da bude neoštećena dok god
nije uključena egzibicija tela self direktno ili indirektno. Međutim, u većini njih, kreativno
produktivni potencijal će biti smanjen zato što njihove velike ambicije koje su ostale vezane
za nemodifikovane grandiozne fantazije će ih plašiti. Kada se ovo uzme u obzir, objekti selfa
tj. odgovori objekata selfa su bili prerano skoncentrisani kao i nerealno na isfantazirane
radove ili isfantazirane proizvode selfa, a i nisu uspeli da adekvatno odgovore na
egzibicionizam urođenog jezgrovnog selfa deteta kao inicijatora rada i onog koji oblikuje
proizvode, self će, kroz život, da se doživljava kao odvojeno od svojih postupaka i slabo u
poređenju sa njima. Takvi ljudi će težiti da izbegavaju da se predaju kreativnim aktivnostima
zato što je njihov self u opasnosti od uništenja tako što će biti usmereno u svoj rad ili u
proizvod koji stvara.
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Ako je najviše preterano stimulisan pol sa idealima – npr.; tako što se neempatski intenzivno i
duže vreme prikazivao roditeljski objekat selfa prilikom potrebe za divljenjem – onda će biti
stalne, intenzivne potrebe za spajanjem sa spoljnjim idealom koje će pretiti ekvilibrijumu
selfa. Pošto je kontakt sa idealizovani objektom selfa doživljen kao opasnosti kao nešto što
mora da se izbegava, zdravi kapacitet za entuzijazam će biti izgubljen – entuzijazam za ciljeve
i ideale koji ljudi sa čvrstim selfom mogu da iskuse zajedno sa velikima kojima se dive, koji
su njihovi vodiči i primeri ili u odnosu na idealizovane ciljeve kojima se posvećuju.

U bliskom odnosu sa previše stimulisanim selfom je preopterećen self. Međutim dok je

previše stimulisan self ono čije ambicije i ideali su bili presretani neempatski izolacijom, bez
dovoljnog obzira za potpun self, preopterećen self je onaj kojem nije bila ni pružena prilika da
se spoji sa mirom omnipotentnog objekta selfa. Preopterećen self, drugim rečima, je self koji
je pretrpeo traumu nepodeljene emocionalnosti. Posledica ovog specifičnog empatskog
neuspeha od strane objekta selfa je odsustvo samoutešnog kapaciteta koje štiti normalnog
pojedinca od traumatizovanja zbog širenja njegovih emocija, pogotovo zbog širenja
anksioznosti. Svet kome nedostaju takvi unutrašnji objekti selfa je povređujući, opasni svet.
Onda nije ni čudo da će self koje je u ranom životu bilo izloženo stanjima “prenatrpanosti”
zbog nedostatka utešnih objekata selfa, će pod određenim okolnostima iskusiti svoju okolinu
kao neprijateljsku. Tokom stanja “prenatrpanosti” u odraslom životu – npr. pošto je terapeut
bio neempatičan, pogotovo kada nije uspeo da da svom pacijentu pravu interpretaciju uzevši u
obzir njegovo emocionalno stanje, ili izlaganja previše uvida u njega odjednom, u zaboravivši
činjenicu da ubijanje novog razumevanja suočava pacijenta sa veoma velikim zadatkom –
pacijent će možda sanjati da živi u otrovnoj atmosferi ili da je okružen rojem opasnih
stršljenova; i, u njegovoj budnoj svesnosti, težiće da odgovori na inače teško primetne
stimuluse kao da su napad na njegove senzibilitete. Npr., žaliće se na zvukove u tarapeutovoj
kancelariji na neprijatne mirise, itd. Ove reakcije pacijenata sa narcističkim poremećajem
ličnosti , pogotovo kada uključuju celokupno ponašanje ili osetljivost i sumnjičavost, mogu u
nekim trenutcima izgledati alarmno slični onima koje viđamo kod psihoza, naravno kao u
paranoji. Za razliku od više ili manje sistematizovane, hronične sumnjičavosti i
kontrahostilnosti paranoičara, ove manifestacije preopterećenog stanja selfa će izgledati, kao
analogne hipohondarske preokupacije u stanjima samofragmentiranosti, uvek kao direktna
posledica specifične narcističke povrede, kao posledica neempatičnog, preopterećenog
odgovora objekta selfa. Oni brzo nestaju kada se empatična veza sa objektom selfa ponovo
uspostavila, npr., u terapiji, kada se ispravna interpretacija načinila.

Obrasci ponašanja i povređen self

Sa velikom količinom suzdržavanja se psihoanalitičar upušta u prikazivanje tipologije

ponašanja, čak iako je bilo moguće da se napravi korelacija njegovih opisa čestih grupa
specifičnih spoljašnjih manifestacija sa specifičnim dinamičkim građama koje se nalaze ispod
ili sa specifičnim tačkama genetskog iskustva. Najbolji podvizi prošlosti – Freud
(1908.,1910., 1916., 1931.) ; Abraham (1921.,1924.,1925.) – nisu izuzetak od pravila da
pojednostavljena korelacija specifičnih obrazaca manifestnog ponašanja sa univerzalno
prisutnim psihološkim stanjima koja iz nužnosti stvaraju delove bilo koje takve tipologije će
nadaleko zaustaviti napredak nauke. Zašto onda mi istrajavamo u pokušajima da stvaramo
karakterologije? Odgovor je da takve klasifikacije, čak iako mi treba da budemo svesni
činjenice da će možda eventualno ograničiti naše razmišljanje i smetati nam, neko vreme će
biti vredni vodiči u psihološkoj teritoriji u kojoj se još uvek ne osećamo kao kod kuće. Npr.,
nema sumnje da analitičar koji se striktno drži misaonih obrazaca koji su tako lepo izloženi od
 8

strane Abraham (1921.) biće sprečen u razumevanju nekih svojih pacijenata. Da je gospodin
W-ov “opsesivni” opis sadržaja njegovih džepova od pantalona (Kohut, 1977. Pp 164-169) bi
bio bezuslovno obeležen kao manifestacija njegovog “analnog karaktera”, ključna važnost
njegovog ponašanja, u službi održavanja njegovog ugroženog selfa, se ne bi razumela i
ključni genetski podaci ne bi izašli na videlo. Ali, da li to znači da bi bilo bolje za analizu da
Abraham nikad nije izložio svoju tipologiju? Odlučno ne. Bilo je od velike pomoći
generacijama analitičara i, dok god smo svesni ograničenja njene primenljivosti, i dalje je od
ograničene korisnosti čak i danas.

Ali čak iako osećamo da je uspostavljanje tipologija opravdano, zahteva se od nas da budemo
eksplicitni u vezi sa nedostacima koji se podrazumevaju u svakom takvom pokušaju.
Nemamo sumnje, na primer, povodom činjenice da koncept “ličnost gladna kopiranja” koji će
kasnije biti izložen, biće od pomoći kao sredstvo orijentacije u okviru strukture psihologije
selfa, baš kao što je i Abraham “analni karakter” bio od pomoći u okviru strukture psihologije
nagona. Ali moramo odmah da kažemo da ima nekih pojedinaca gladnih kopiranja čije
strukture ličnosti su drugačije od one koja, prema našoj dinamičkoj interpretaciji, je u
korelaciji sa njihovim ponašanjem gladnog kopiranja drugačije je jer nije bilo formirano kao
posledica specifičnih trauma u detinjstvu koje, prema našoj genetskoj rekonstrukciji, su
odgovorni agensi. Gospodin X-ovo ponašanje (Kohut 1977. Pp 199-219) može da se
okarakteriše kao svojstvo ličnosti gladne kopiranja. Međutim, njegovo insistiranje na pažnji i
pohvalama, njegova arogantna superiornost, nisu bili manifestacije specifične strukture
ličnosti – okarakterisano od strane jednostavnih manjkavosti usled nedostatka pažnje u vidu
kopiranja u detinjstvu – koje bi trebalo da očekujemo da susretnemo na osnovu našeg opisa
osobe gladne kopiranja. Njegovo ponašanje gladno kopiranja je bilo ugrađeno u mnogo
kompleksnije organizovanu patološku ličnost. Njegovo ponašanje je bilo manifestacija
odeljka ličnosti koji je bio izolovan od njegovog jezgrovnog selfa kroz “vertikalni prelom” –
prelom koji je došao ne zbog nedostatka kopirajuće opažnje u detinjstvu već zbog specifične
greške u odgovorima majke na njega. Tačnije, dok je njeno odobravanje njega samog stvarno
bilo preterano, fokus njenog kopiranja nije bio izabran u skladu sa njegovim potrebama –
konkretno da se razvije nezavisan i snažan self – već u skladu sa njenim – konkretno, da ga
drži zavisnim od nje , dakle da ga drži u okviru svoje organizacije ličnosti, da bi ojačala svoje
nesigurno izgrađen self.

Doduše, ima mnogo slučajeva gde je naše kratko objašnjenje “ličnosti gladne kopiranja”
tačnije. Gospođa F. npr. (Kohot 1971. Pp 283-293), je stvarno postala “gladna kopiranja” – tj.
samovoljno tražeći ekskluzivnu pažnju i utešnu pohvalu – zato što njene potrebe prikladne za
fazu kopiranja nisu bile zadovoljene od strane njene samoljubive majke. Ali čak i u ovim
slučajevima pacijentova zahtevnost jednostavno nije sadašnji izraz normalnih, samoasertivnih
potreba detinjstva koji su istrajali zato sto nisu adekvatno dobile odgovor u prošlosti. Zbog
intenziteta ovih potreba i zbog pacijentovih ubeđenja da neće naći odjek empatije pune
razumevanja, oni osećaju veliku sramotu koja ih vodi u njihovo suzbijanje, manifestovano
depresivnim i beznadnim povlačenjem – ovo ponašanje ponekad, pogotovo u narcističkim
poremećajima ponašanja oscilira između izliva besno izraženih ali neefikasno zadovoljenih
zahteva da ono što nije dobro postane ispravno.

Pošto smo prethodno dali glas nekima od argumenata koji govore za i protiv psihoanalitičkih
karakterologija u opštem obliku i nekim prednostima i manama koje se tiču klasifikacije
bihevioralnih sindroma pogotovu u području poremećenog selfa, sada ćemo prestati da
budemo previše obazrivi i okarakterisaćemo neke narcističke ličnosti koje se često susreću.
 9

Ličnosti gladne kopiranja (Mirror – Hungry Personalities) gladuju za objektima selfa čiji
potvrđujući odgovori i odgovori puni divljenja će negovati njihovo gladujući self. Oni su
skloni da se eksponiraju izazivaju pažnju od drugih, dok, ma koliko užurbano kontrirali njihov
unutrašnji osećaj bezvrednosti i manjka samopouzdanja. Neki su u stanju da razviju odnose sa
pouzdanim kopirajućim drugima koji će ih održavati duže vreme. Ali mnogi neće biti
negovani dugo, čak iako su odgovori iskreni. Dakle, uprkos njihovoj nelagodnosti u vezi sa
njihovim eksponiranjem i uprkos njihovom povremenom ogromnom strahu i sramoti, moraju
da nastave da traže nove objekte selfa čiju opažnju i priznanje oni žele da izazovu.

Licnosti gladne ideala (Ideal Hungry personalities) su u večnoj potrazi za druge kojima će da
se dive zbog njihovog prestiža, moći, lepote, inteligencije ili moralnog stava. Mogu da
doživljavaju sebe vrednim samo dok god mogu da se povežu sa objektima selfa kojima mogu
da se dive. Opet, u nekim slučajevima, takvi odnosi mogu da dugo traju i stvarno su dobri za
oba uključena pojedinca. Međutim, u većini slučajeva, unutrašnja praznina ne može večno da
se ispunjava na ovaj način. Gladan ideala oseća stalni strukturni defekt i, kao posledica ove
svesnosti, počinje da traži – i, naravno , neizbežno nađe – neke realne defekte u njegovom
Bogu. Potraga za idealizovanim objektom selfa se nastavlja, uvek u nadi da sledeća velika
figura sa kojom se poveže ga neće razočarati.

Alterego licnosti (Alter – ego personalities) traže odnos sa objektom selfa koji će
prilagođavanjem prikaza u mišljenjima i vrednostima selfa potvrditi postojanje istog. U nekim
trenutcima ličnost gladna alter ega bi mogla da formira trajna prijateljstva – prijateljstva u
kojima oba partnera proživljavaju osećanja drugog kao da su to njihovi self. “Ako su u tuzi,
on će jecati; ako si budan, on neće spiti; s toga za svaki jad u srcu tobom će deliti teret ceo”.
(Shakespeare, Strastveni hodočasnik). Ali opet, u većini slučajeva, unutrašnja praznina ne
može da se trajno popuni blizanastvom. Gladan alterega otkriva da drugi nije on, i kao
posledicu ovog otkrića, počinje da ispoljava kao udaljavanje od drugog. Dakle,
karakteristično je za većinu ovih odnosa da su kratki. Kao i gladni ideala i kopiranja, gladni
alter ega je sklon da traži besomučno jednu zamenu za drugu.

Prethodna tri tipa ličnosti u narcističkom području se često susreću u svakodnevnom životu i
generalno ih ne treba smatrati za oblike psihopatologije već više kao varijanta normalne
ljudske ličnosti sa svojim osobinama i defektima. Koristeći se terminima udaljenijim od
iskustva, nije primaran intenzitet potrebe koji dovodi do tipičnog ponašanja i stava ovih
pojedinaca već specifični smer u koji se protežu u njihovom pokušaju da nadoknade opisanu
slabost u njihovom selfu. Mesto defekta selfa dovodi do karakterističnog pristupa ovih
pojedinaca, neprotezanje defekta u selfu. Kontrastno, sledeća dva tipa se manje karakterišu
mestom defekta i više protezanjem. Uopšteno, moraju se razmatrati kao da leže na spektru
patološkog narcizma.

Ličnosti gladne spajanja (Merger – hungry personalities) će nas zadiviti njihovom potrebom
da kontrolišu njihove objekte selfa kako bi se odigrala potreba za strukturom. Za razliku od
tipova koji su izloženi ranije, ovde je potreba za spajanjem ta koja dominira u celoj priči,
Specifični tip spajanja, međutim – bilo da je to kopiranje ili idealizovanim objektom selfa ili
sa alteregom – je manje bitno u određivanju ponašanja pojedinca. Pošto je self ovih
pojedinaca ozbiljno poremećen i oslabljen, potrebni su im objekti selfa u zamenu za strukturu
selfa. Njihove manifestne karakteristike ličnosti i njihovo ponašanje su dominirani činjenicom
da fluidnost njihovih granica između njih i drugih ometa njihovu sposobnost da razlikuju
njihove misli, želje i namere od onih koji pripadaju objektu selfa. Pošto doživljavaju drugog
 10

kao njih same ne tolerišu njegovu nezavisnost: jako su osetljivi na odvajanje od njega i
zahtevaju – stvarno očekuju bez sporenja – trajno prisustvo objekta selfa.

Ličnosti koje teraju kontakt (Contact – shunning personalities) su suprotnost prethodno

opisanog. Iako iz očiglednih razloga oni najmanje privlače pažnju, oni su verovatno najčešći
narcistički tip ličnosti. Ovi pojedinci izbegavaju socijalni kontakt i postaju izolovani, ne zbog
nezainteresovanosti za druge već, naprotiv, zato što je njihova potreba za njih tako intenzivna.
Intenzitet njihove potrebe ne vodi samo velikoj osetljivosti za odbijanje, osetljivost koje su
bolno svesni – već takođe, na dubokom i nesvesnom nivou, pogurenost zbog verovanja da će
ostaci njihovog jezgrovnog selfa biti progutani i uništeni od strane toliko željenog
sjedinjavanja.

Lečenje narcističkog ponašanja i poremećaja ličnosti

Suštinski tarapeutski cilj dubinske psihologije je veliko ublažavanje ili izlečenje centralnog
poremećaja, ne suzbijanjem simptoma ubeđivanjem ili obrazovanjem koliko god da je to
dobronamerno. Pošto je centralna patologija u narcističkom ponašanju i poremećajima ličnosti
defektno ili oslabljeno stanje selfa, cilj terapije je obnavljanje ove strukture. Istina, gledano
spolja, grupe simptoma i karakteristika ličnosti koje čine narcističke poremećaje ponašanja, sa
jedne strane su potpuno drugačiji: asertivne izjave prve grupe se čine previše jakim dok kod
druge se ne čine dovoljno jakim. Ali psihološko dubinsko istraživanje pokazuje da je
psihopatološka osnova oba poremećaja – bolest selfa – u suštini ista.

Gledajući pacijente sa patologijom selfa, oni sa narcističkim poremećajem ponašanja, koji

deklarišu previše glasne narcističke tvrdnje i čije ponašanje izgleda kao da je previše asertivna
u odnosu na self, terapeut bi možda bio u iskušenju da ih ubedi da odbace svoje zahteve i da
prihvate ograničenja koja su im nametnule karakteristike stvarnosti odraslog doba. Ali činiti
ovo je kao da pokušavate da ubedite pacijenta koji pati od strukturne neuroze da odustane od
svoje fobije, histerične paralize, kompulzivnog rituala. Preterano izraženi prenaglašeni
narcistički zahtevi ovih pacijenata i onoga što izgleda kao da je preterano izražena ogromna
količina asertivnosti u odnosu na self čine skup karakterološki ugrađenih simptoma – oni nisu
manifestacija arhaičnog narcizma koji nije bio ukroćen u ranom životu, pa sad mora da bude
ukroćen. Naprotiv, suština bolesti ovih pacijenata je da je pristup njihovom narcizmu
detinjstva zamandaljen.

Neispunjene narcističke potrebe njihovog detinjstva sa kojima moraju da nauče da dođu u

dodir, koje moraju da nauče da prihvate, koje moraju da nauče da izraze, leže duboko
zakopane ispod njihove grandiozne asertivnosti, čuvan uz pomoć zida srama i ranjivosti. Ako,
na osnovu terapijske zrelosti – ili realnosti – moralnosti, terapeut se skoncentriše na
cenzurisanje pacijentovog narcizma, odvešće potisnute narcističke potrebe dublje u represiju –
ili će povećati dubinu rascepa u ličnosti koja deli deo psihe koja sadrži neodgovoreno na
autonomni self od onog koji je bučno asertivan i kome nedostaje autonomija – i blokiraće
odvijanje narcističkog prenosa. Ova razmatranja se primenjuju zavisno od toga da li se
pacijentovi preterani narcistički zahtevi izražavaju kroz tihi stalni pritisak, putem napada
povređujućeg narcističkog besa, ili putem emocionalnih sredstava koji leže između ova dva
ekstrema. Svi znamo ljude koji nam dosađuju tako što traže od nas opet i opet da ponovimo
naše lepe komentare koji se tiču nekog njihovog uspešnog izvođenja. I takođe svi znamo
druge koji, kroz svoj život, idu od jednog napada besa kroz koji sebično zahtevaju do drugog,
naizgled sa totalnim zaboravom u odnosu na prava i osećanja drugih kojima su usmereni
njihovi zahtevi. Ako analitičar odgovori na ove zahteve izlaganjima koja se tiču realističnosti
 11

i emocionalne zrelosti ili, još gore, ako optužujući interpretira to kao izraz njihovog nezasitog
oralnog nagona koji treba da bude ukroćen ili o primarnoj destruktivnosti koja mora da bude
neutralizovana ili vezana strukturama koje kontrolišu agresivnost, onda će, kao što smo rekli
razvoj narcističkog prenosa biti blokiran. Ali ako može da pokaže pacijentu koji zahteva
pohvalu, da, uprkos dostupnosti prosečnih spoljašnjih odgovora, on mora da nastavi da “peca”
za komplimente zato što beznadežna potreba nekopiranog deteta u njemu ostaje neudovoljena,
i ako može da pokaže pobesnelom pacijentu bespomoćnost i beznađe koje leže iza njegovih
besova moći će da mu pokaže da su stvarno njegovi besovi direktna posledica činjenice da ne
može da izloži svoje zahteve efikasno, onda će stare potrebe polako početi da se pojavljuju
otvorenije dok pacijent postaje empatičniji prema samom sebi. I kada suzbijanja su totalno
uklonjena – ili kada je rascep održavan kroz poricanje preprečen – i narcistički zahtevi
detinjstva počnu da se stidljivo pokazuju, opasnost nije u tome da će oni da odu u svoje
ekstreme već da će opet otići i sakriti se kod prvog otpora ili prvog neempatičkog odgovora.
Iskustvo nas uči, drugim rečima da terapeutov glavni trud mora da bude skoncentrisan na
zadatak da drži stare potrebe mobilisanim. Ako uspe u ovome, onda će oni postepeno – i
spontano – da se transformišu u normalnu asertivnost u odnosu na self i normalnu
posvećenost idealima.

Navedeni zaključci takođe opstaju i u odnosu na pojedince sa patologijom selfa, onima sa

narcističkim poremećajima ličnosti, onima koji su preterano stidljivi, neasertivni i socijalno
izolovanima, već i kod onih čije svesne i predsvesne fantazije – “tajni život Voltera Mitija” –
su grandiozne. Ako terapeut veruje da su pacijentova stidljivost, povučenost i socijalna
izolacija usled opstanka arhaičnih iluzija, specifično da su usled opstanka neukroćene dečije
grandioznosti koje su manifestovane u obliku njegovih grandioznih fantazija, onda će se
osećati opravdanim u pokušaju, kroz primenu prosvetnog i moralnog pritiska da ubedi
pacijenta da odbaci te fantazije. Ali ni pacijentove fantazije ni njegova socijalna izolacija nisu
uzrok njegove bolesti. Naprotiv, zajedno čine psihološku jedinicu koja, kao zaštitni uređaj,
pokušava da održi pacijentovo slabo uspostavljen self tako što će sprečavati njegovo opasno
izlaganje oštećenju i podsmevanju. Ako je tarapeut nastrojen prosvetno više nego analitički,
ako ograničava svoj pristup tako što će pokušati da ubedi pacijenta da odustane od svoje
isfantazirane grandioznosti, onda će udaljenost između pacijentovog poremećenog selfa, sa
jedne strane, i tarapeutovog nadanog empatskog odgovaranja na pacijentove narcističke
potrebe, sa druge strane će se uvećati i spontano će krenuti pokreti ka prvoj značajnoj rupi u
zidu osetljivosti i sumnje, uspostavljanje narcističkog prenosa će biti zaustavljeno. Međutim,
ako, terapeut može da objasni bez cenzure zaštitnu funkciju grandioznih fantazija i socijalne
izolacije i tako demonstrirati da je u skladu sa pacijentovom teskobom povodom
dezintegracije i sramote koja se tiče njegovog slabo uspostavljenog selfa, onda neće ometati
spontano izdizanje pre prenosne pokretljivosti starih narcističkih potreba. Uprkos
dezintegracionim strahovima i sramoti, pacijent će biti u mogućnosti prvobitno oprezno,
potom sve otvorenije, da iskusi potrebu za radosnim prihvatanjem objekta selfa povodom
njegove detinje grandioznosti i za omnipotentnu okolinu – zdrave potrebe na koje se nije
reagovalo u ranom životu. I opet, kao i u slučaju narcističkih poremećaja ponašanja, ponovo
pokrenute potrebe će postepeno – i spontano – biti transformisane u normalnu
samoasertivnost i normalnu posvećenost idealima.

U prethodnom smo demonstrirali tarapeutske principe koje smo iskazali i tarapeutske

strategije povezane sa njima su zasnovane na razumevanju centralne psihopatologije
poremećaja selfa podložnih analizi i da imaju cilj da ublaže ili izleče centralnu
psihopatologiju. Pošto je psihopatologija obe glavne vrste poremećaja podložnih analizi
identična, proizilazi da uprkos njihovoj raznolikoj simptomatologiji – bučni zahtevi,
 12

intenzivna aktivnost na socijalnom planu u narcističkim poremećajima ponašanja; sramota i

socijalna izolacija u narcističkim poremećajima ličnosti – proces lečenja je takođe u suštini
identičan. Takođe, isto važi za celokupne rezultate koji se dobijaju i lečenjem: to je
učvršćivanje ranije oslabljenog selfa, i u polu koji nosi pacijentove samopouzdano održive
ambicije i u polu koji nosi njegove idealizovane ciljeve. Samo treba dodati da je pacijentovo
obnovljeno samopouzdanje i obnovljen entuzijazam za njegove ciljeve će mu na kraju
omogućiti bilo da je bolovao od narcističkog poremećaja ponašanja ili od narcističkog
poremećaja ličnosti, da opet krene u pohod ostvarivanja akcionog programa koji je ugrađen u
energetsko polje koje je uspostavljeno između njegovih jezgrovito uspostavljenih ambicija i
ideala, što će omogućiti da on vodi ispunjen kreativan i produktivan život.

Sa predhodnim naznakama u vezi sa nekim kliničkim lekcijama, izvučenih iz primene

psihologije selfa na tarapeutsku situaciju, naš pregled psihologije selfa je došao do kraja pošto
ne služi ničemu ako bismo pokušali da napravimo siže eseja koji je, sam po sebi u svojoj
suštini siže rezultata ranijih istraživanja, ograničićemo našu konačnu izjavu na naglašavanje
da kratkoća našeg izlaganja ne ukazuje ni na kakvu ubeđenost sa naše strane da mi nudimo
prikaz završenog sistema misli. Samo smo pokušali da opišemo ukratko trenutno stanje novog
razvoja u psihoanalizi – razvoj koji ne samo da nije došao do kraja, već koji izgleda da nije
izgubio ništa od svog početnog impulsa. Prethodne stranice bi, dakle, trebalo da se smatraju
kao pregled prethodnog stanja psihoanalitičke psihologije selfa – pregleda koji bi trebalo da
nam pomogne u planiranju daljeg istraživanja jednog još uvek nepotpuno istraženog
psihološkog polja.

Uvodne napomene za diskusiju o „Psihologija selfa i nauka o čoveku“

Predstaviću našu diskusiju sa sažetkom psihologije selfa, stavljajući posebni naglasak na neke
od pojava koje su specifično povezane sa pitanjem koje je dato od strane naslova danas: Da li
psihologija selfa sužava zjap između psihoanalize i drugih nauka o čoveku?

Najosnovnija činjenica psihoanalitičke psihologije selfa, po mom verovanju, je da pripisuje

jasno definisano mesto za empatiju i introspekciju. Sa uzdizanjem psihoanalitičke psihologije
selfa, psihoanaliza sada postaje otvoreno i bez prerušavanja ono što, uprkos Froidovoj
neizvesnosti povodom ovog pitanja i uprkos njegovom povremenom čvrstom protivljenju, mi
mislimo da je ta nauka oduvek bila u svojoj suštini, konkretno, ogranak psihologije –
specifično prva naučna psihologija složenih mentalnih stanja.

Iz pogleda psihologa selfa ovo izvesno usvajanje stanovišta da je psihoanaliza nauka koja
istražuje dimenzije sveta koji je pristupačan kroz introspekciju i empatiju je od ključne
važnosti u ulasku u novu fazu psihoanalize: donosi potez iz faze okarakterisane
preokupacijom oko izlaganja i uglađivanja utvrđenih teorija u fazu obnovljenog naglašavanja
na skupljanje osnovnih podataka, povratak empatskom posmatranju unutrašnjeg iskustva.

Obnovljena preokupacija skupinama osnovnih podataka posmatranja, međutim, ne ukazuje na

zanemarivanje teorije. Naprotiv, ponovnim naglašavanjem pažljivog posmatranja, psiholog
selfa ponovno uspostavlja uzajamno obogaćivanje interakcije između teorije i posmatranja
koje obeležava sve nauke. Kreativno posmatranje, kao što bih ja to voleo da zovem, je uvek
isprepletano sa teorijom – usmereno je nekom jedva uviđenom novom orijentacijom i praćeno
je sve preciznijom formulacijom novih teoretskih ključnih tačaka i postepenom evolucijom
novih teoretskih struktura. Neki sažetci promena u teoriji koje psihologija selfa donosi se već
mogu navesti: prebacivanje iz prethodnog naglašavanja kvazibioloških “nagona” – i, drugo, iz
 13

proučavanja psiholoških konflikata koji izranjaju kada je u pitanju njihovo izlaganje i njihovo
ukroćivanje – na dopostuliranja primarnih konfiguracija koje su već složene od početka
(“molekularni”, ne”atomski”;”organski”, ne”neorganski”;”psihološki”,”nebiološki”). Ove
složene primarne konfiguracije su “self” i njegovi “činioci”. Umesto rada u okviru strukture
bioloških nagona i mentalnog aparata, psiholog selfa postulira primarno selfu koji, u matrici
empatskih objekata selfa koje se uzima kao zdrav za gotov preduslov psihološkog postojanja
kao što je kiseonik za biološki život, doživljava veličanstvenost objekta selfa (asertivnost,
ambiciju), sa jedne strane i savršenstvo objekta selfa (idealizacija nečijih ciljeva, entuzijazam
za nečije ideale), sa druge strane. Nagoni u izolaciji, doživljaji seksa i agresije umesto
doživljaja seksualnog i agresivnog selfa, se sada smatraju za sekundarne fenomene. Oni su
dezintegracioni proizvodi koji se tiču razbijanja primarnog kompleksa psihološke
konfiguracije kao posledica (empatskih) neuspeha u matrici objekta selfa. Podložno ozbiljnim
i dugim ili ponovljenim neuspesima od strane objekata selfa, asertivnost postaje
egzibicionizam, entuzijazam postaje voajerizam; radost se menja u depresiju letargiju –
zonalna erotična zadovoljstva (oralna, analna, falično – genitalna) se upražnjavaju u
izolovanom obliku umesto da se doživljavaju kao razni ciljevi zadovoljstva radosno
asertivnog totalnog selfa i cilj zadovoljenja ovih zonalnih zadovoljstava ili dobijanje umirenja
ili utehe i/ili da bi se dobio osećaj životnosti koje karakteriše aktivno, zdrav self.

Prenos sa orijentacije koja naglašava glavninu nagona u okviru mentalnog aparata i fokusira
se na sukobe, sa jedne strrane, na tačku gledišta koje ukazuje na važnost ambicije i ideala
kohezivnog selfa i fokusira se na uspehe i neuspehe doživljene od strane selfa u okviru
matrice opstajuće empatije ili izbacivanje neempatije sa njegovih objekata selfa, sa druge
strane, vodi do drugačijih – proširenijih i značajnijih – uloga vremenske ose u psihologiji
selfa. Klasična analiza je samo obraćala malu pažnju na vreme. Vremenska osa je bila
ukazana tokom odvijanja nagonski motivisanih mehanizama (međutim, naglasak je bio na
rezultat mentalne aktivnosti – na strukture koje učestvuju u dinamici ograničene promene –
nego na vremensku osu iz koje se odigravalo odvijanje psihičkih događaja). I vremenska zona
je takođe bila ukazana u odnosu na rekonstrukciju prošlosti pojedinca (međutim, naglašavan
je više proces i struktura – na analitički proces koji prodire do potisnutog; na slojeve koji su
odbijali proboj – nego na vremensku osu iz koje su se odigravali događaji iz životne istorije
osobe).

Uzevši u obzir činjenicu da bol i neispunjenost teže da imaju preimućstvo nad zadovoljstvom
i ispunjenjem u svim fazama ljudskog života, mogli bismo aforistički da kažemo da klasična
analiza je otkrila tugu deteta u dubini odraslog – uspostavilo je aktuelnost prošlosti – dok
psihologija selfa je otkrila tugu odraslog u dubini deteta; uspostavilo je aktuelnost budućnosti.
Ili, izražavajući rekonstrukciju u stilu psihologije selfa u i dalje drugačijim terminima,
rećićemo da dete čiji self je zaustavljenog rasta od strane neuspeha objekata selfa, u svojoj
depresiji, oplakuje neproživljenu, neispunjenu budućnost. Uvek prisutni ulaz svih formulacija
psihologije selfa je ovo: Važnost svakog trenutka iskustva odlučan u verovanju da nešto
patnje i depresije može da bude u suštini korak ka potpunom ispunjenju ili, u suprotnom, da
neka zadovoljstva i čak radost mogu da budu u suštini sterilni i deo tragičnog neuspeha –
mogu samo da budu procenjena nasuprot procenjivanju totalnog toka kreativnog ili
nekreativnog sterilnog životnog ciklusa.

Klasična analiza se fokusirala na duboko rasvetljavanje trenutno aktivnih obrazaca nagona i

odbrana – strukturno dinamička tačka gledišta – i nerasvetljavanje odnosa ovih trenutno
aktivnih obrazaca u odnosu na ključne obrasce prošlosti – nasumična tačka gledišta.
Psihoanalitička psihologija selfa se fokusira i na duboka rasvetljavanja selfa i njegovo
 14

sadašnje stanje, kao i na rasvetljavanje uticaja njegove prošlosti ne samo u odnosu na njeno
sadašnje stanje nego i u odnosu na njenu budućnost. Naša svesnost da činjenica da specifične
tenzije koje su uspostavljene između specifičnih jezgrovnih ambicija i jezgrovinih ideala
specifičnog pojedinca određuju ceo tok specifičnog života pojedinca – prepoznavanje drugim
rečima, da se mi suočavamo ne samo sa sukobima KRIVICE ČOVEKA nad njegovim
nagonima već i teškoćama TRAGIČNOG ČOVEKA da ispuni njegovu specifičnu sudbinu –
je od velike važnosti ne samo u oblasti kliničkog i pogotovo u raznim oblastima primenjene
analize.

Bilo je mnogo debate povodom vrednosti primenjene analize. Oduvek sam pripadao onima
koji, iako priznajem njena ograničenja, sam je branio. Drago mi je sad da kažem da je
psihologija selfa meni omogućila da navedem još jedan i, verujem, suštinski argument za.
Najvažniji izvor bitnih podataka koji se mogu nabaviti o dubinskoj psihologiji, po meni čak i
pouzdaniji podaci dobijeni kroz posmatranje deteta od strane analitičara se dobija pažljivim
posmatranjem odvijanja prenosa u analitičkoj situaciji. Smatram da psihologija selfa može da
pomogne analizi izvan kliničkog okruženja ukazujući na posmatranje odvijajućeg života, ako
se posmatra kao niz sukoba da self ostvari svoj jezgrovni obrazac, tako da se dobiju podaci
koji mogu da budu važni i pouzdani kao i oni dobijeni tokom terapeutske analize. Samim tim
pregledavanjem odvijanja celokupnog života umetnika, čak i odvijanje u vremenu određenih,
velikih, remek dela – velike tragedije su replike života, po meni – i, ipak, čak i proučavanje
odvijanja sudbina ljudi, na primer, životne krivulje “grupnog selfa”, mogu da daju podatke
koji mogu da budu i bitni i pouzdani kao i oni dobijeni tokom terapeutske analize.
 15

If we keep in mind the processes by which the self is created, we realize that, however
primitive by comparison with the self of the adult the nuclear self may be, it is already at its
very inception a complex structure, arising at the end point of a developmental process which
may be said to have its virtual beginnings with the formation of specific hopes, dreams, and
expectations concerning the future child in the minds of the parents, especially the mother.
When the baby is born, the encounter with the child's actual structural and functional
biological equipment will, of course, influence the imagery about the child's future personality
that had been formed by the parents. But the parental expectations will, from birth onward,
exert a considerable influence on the baby's developing self. The self arises thus as the result
of the interplay between the newborn's innate equipment and the selective responses of the
selfobjects through which certain potentialities are encouraged in their development while
others remain unencouraged or are even actively discouraged. Out of this selective process
there emerges, probably during the second year of life, a nuclear self, which, as stated earlier,
is currently conceptualized as a bipolar structure; archaic nuclear ambitions form one pole,
archaic nuclear ideals the other. The tension arc between these two poles enhances the
development of the child's nuclear skills and talents – rudimentary skills and talents – that will
gradually develop into those that the adult employs in the service of the productivity and
creativity of his mature self.

The strength of these three ma-jor constituents of the self, the choice of their specific contents,
the nature of their relationship – e.g., which one of them will ultimately predominate-and their
progress toward maturity and potential fulfillment through creative actions, will be less
influenced by those responses of the selfobjects that are shaped by their philosophy of child
rearing than by those that express the state of their own nuclear self. In other words, it is not
so rnuch what the parents do that will influence the character of the child's self, but what the
parents are. If the parents are at peace with their own needs to shine and to succeed insofar as
these needs can be realistically gratified-if, in other words, the parents' self-confidence is
secure, then the proud exhibitionism of the budding self of their child will be responded to
acceptingly. However grave the blows may be to which the child's grandiosity is exposed by
tlie realities of life, the prouti srnile of the parents will keep alive a bit of the original
omnipotence, to be retained as the nucleus of the self-confidence and inner security about
one's worth that sustain the healthy person throughout his life. Antl the same holds true with
regard to our ideals. However great our disappointnlent as we discover the weaknesses and
limitations of tlie idealized selfobjects of our early life, their self-confidence as they carried us
when we were babies, their security when they allowed us to merge our anxious selves with
their tranquility – via their calm voices or via our closeness with their relaxed bodies as they
held us – will be retained by us as the nucleus of the strength of our leading ideals and of the
calmriess we experience as we live our lives under the guidance of our inner goals.

It is only in the light of our appreciation of the crucial influence exerted on the development
of the self by the personality of the selfobjects of childhood that we are able to trace the
genetic roots of the disorders of the self: Psychoanalytic case histories tended to emphasize
certain dramatic incidents, certain grossly traumatic events-from the child's witnessing the
"primal scene" to the loss of' a parent in childhooci. But we have come to incline to the
opinion that such traumatic events may be no more than clues that point to the truly
pathogenic factors, the unwholesome atmosphere to which the child was exposed during the
years when his self was established. 'laken by themselves, in other words, these events leave
fewer serious disturbances in their wake than the chronic ambience created by the deep-rooted
attitudes of the selfobjects, since even the still vulnerable self, in the process of formation, can
cope with serious traumas if it is embedded in a healthily supportive milieu. The essence of
 16

the healthy matrix for the growing self of the child is a mature, cohesive parental self that is in
tune with the changing needs of the child. It can, with a glow of shared joy, mirror the child's
grandiose display one minute, yet, perhaps a minute later, should the child become anxious
and overstimulated by his or her exhibitionism, it will curb the display by adopting a realistic
attitude vis-a-vis the child's limitations. Such optimal frustrations of the child's need to be
mirrored and to merge into an idealized selfobject, hand in hand with optimal gratifications,
generate the appropriate growth-facilitating matrix for the self. Some parents, however, are
11ot adequately sensitive to the needs of the child but will instead respond to the needs of
their own insecurely established self. Here are two characteristic illustrations of pathogenic
selfobject failures. They concern typical events that emerge frequently during the analysis of
patients with narcissistic personality disorders during the transference repetitions of those
childhood experiences that interfered with the not-nial development of the self. We must add
here that the episodes depicted in the following vignettes are indicative of' a pathogenic
childhood environment only if they form part of the selfobjects' chronic attitude. Put
differently, they would not emerge at crucial junctures of a selfobject transference if they had
occurred as the consequence of a parent's unavoidable occasional failure.

If we keep in mind the processes by which the self is created, we realize that, however
primitive by comparison with the self of the adult the nuclear self may be, it is already at its
very inception a complex structure, arising at the end point of a developmental process which
may be said to have its virtual beginnings with the formation of specific hopes, dreams, and
expectations concerning the future child in the minds of the parents, especially the mother.
When the baby is born, the encounter with the child's actual structural and functional
biological equipment will, of course, influence the imagery about the child's future personality
that had been formed by the parents. But the parental expectations will, from birth onward,
exert a considerable influence on the baby's developing self. The self arises thus as the result
of the interplay between the newborn's innate equipment and the selective responses of the
selfobjects through which certain potentialities are encouraged in their development while
others remain unencouraged or are even actively discouraged. Out of this selective process
there emerges, probably during the second year of life, a nuclear self, which, as stated earlier,
is currently conceptualized as a bipolar structure; archaic nuclear ambitions form one pole,
archaic nuclear ideals the other. The tension arc between these two poles enhances the
development of the child's nuclear skills and talents – rudimentary skills and talents – that will
gradually develop into those that the adult employs in the service of the productivity and
creativity of his mature self.

The strength of these three ma-jor constituents of the self, the choice of their specific contents,
the nature of their relationship – e.g., which one of them will ultimately predominate-and their
progress toward maturity and potential fulfillment through creative actions, will be less
influenced by those responses of the selfobjects that are shaped by their philosophy of child
rearing than by those that express the state of their own nuclear self. In other words, it is not
so rnuch what the parents do that will influence the character of the child's self, but what the
parents are. If the parents are at peace with their own needs to shine and to succeed insofar as
these needs can be realistically gratified-if, in other words, the parents' self-confidence is
secure, then the proud exhibitionism of the budding self of their child will be responded to
acceptingly. However grave the blows may be to which the child's grandiosity is exposed by
tlie realities of life, the prouti srnile of the parents will keep alive a bit of the original
omnipotence, to be retained as the nucleus of the self-confidence and inner security about
one's worth that sustain the healthy person throughout his life. Antl the same holds true with
regard to our ideals. However great our disappointnlent as we discover the weaknesses and
 17

limitations of tlie idealized selfobjects of our early life, their self-confidence as they carried us
when we were babies, their security when they allowed us to merge our anxious selves with
their tranquility – via their calm voices or via our closeness with their relaxed bodies as they
held us – will be retained by us as the nucleus of the strength of our leading ideals and of the
calmriess we experience as we live our lives under the guidance of our inner goals.

First illustration: A little girl comes home from school, eager to tell her mother about some
great successes. But the mother, instead of listening with pride, deflects the conversation from
the child to herself, begins to talk about her own successes which overshadow those of her
little daughter.
Second illustration: A little boy is eager to idealize his father; he wants his father to tell him
about his life, the battles he engaged in and won. But instead of joyfully acting in accordance
with his son's need, the father is embarrassed by the request. He feels tired and bored and,
leaving the house, finds a temporary source of vitality for his enfeebled self in the tavern,
through drink and mutually supportive talk with friends.

The fragmenting self. This is a chronic or recurrent condition of the self, the propensity to
which arises in consequence of the lack of integrating responses to the nascent self in its
totality from the side of the selfobjects in childhood. Occasionally fragmentation states of
minor degree and short duration are ubiquitous. They occur in all of us when our self-esteem
has been taxed for prolonged periods and when no replenishing sustenance has presented
itself. We all may walk home after a day in which we suffered a series of self-esteem-shaking
failures, feeling at sixes and sevens within ourselves. Our gait and posture will be less than
graceful at such times, our movements will tend to be clun~sy, and even our mental functions
will show signs of discoordination. Our patients with narcissistic personality disorders will
not only be more inclined to react with such fragmentation symptoms to even minor
disappointments, but their symptoms will tend to be more severe, if a nornlally tastef~~lly
dressed patient arrives in our office in a disheveled attire, if his tie is grossly nlismatched, and
the color of his socks does not go with that of his shoes, we shall usually not go wrong if we
begin to search our memory with the question whether we had been unempathic in the last
session, whether we had failed to recognize a narcissistic need. Still more serious degrees of
fragmentation will finally be encountered during the psychoanalytic treatment of the most
severely disturbed patients with narcissistic personality disorders. Here a patient might
respond to even minor rebuffs, whether from the side of' the analyst or in his daily life, with a
deep loss of the sense of the continuity of' his self in time and of its cohesiveness in space-a
psychic conclition that produces profound anxiety. The feeling, in particular, that various
body parts are beginning not to be held together anymore by a strong, healthy awareness of
the totality of the body self, leads to apprehensive brooding concerning the fragments of the
body, often expressed by the patient in the form of hypochondriacal worry concerning his
health. Unlike the chronic hypochondriacal preoccupations encountered in some psychoses,
however, even the most severe and quasi-delusional analogous worries in the narcissistic
personality disorders are the direct consequence of some specific, identifiable narcissistic
injury, and they disappear, often with dramatic speecl, as soon as a bridge of empathy with an
understanding selfobject has been built. A frequently occurring sequence of events during the
analysis of patients who have established a mirror transference will demonstrate this point.
When the mirror transference is in balance, the patient, sensing the analyst's empathic
attention, feels whole and self-accepting. Subsequent to an erroneous interpretation, however-
-e.g., fi~llowing a session in which the analyst had addressed himself to some detail ofthe
patient's psychic life when, in fact (after some progress in treatment, for example, or after
some external success), the patient had offered his total self for approval-the patient's feeling
 18

of wholeness which had been maintained via the transference disappears. It is

reestablishedwhen the analyst restores the empathic tie to the selfobject by correctly
interpreting the sequence of events that had led to its disruption.

In the following we will present some syndromes of self pathology, arising in consequence of
the developmental failures described in the preceding section. It is clear that in many if not in
most instances the various forms of self-disturbance which we separate from each other in the
following classification will not be clearly identifiable in specific patients. Mixtures of the
experiences characteristic of different types will often be present and, even more frequently,
one and the same patient will experience the one or the other of the pathological states of the
self at different times, often even in close proximity. 'The following descriptions should,
however, be clinically helpful because they point out frequently occurring clusters of
experience. The understimulated self. This is a chronic or recurrent condition of the self, the
propensity to which arises in consequence of prolonged lack of stimulating responsiveness
from the side of the selfobjects in childhood. Such personalities are lacking in vitality. They
experience themselves as boring and apathetic, and they are experienced by others in the same
way. Individuals whose nascent selves have been insuf'ticiently responded to will use any
available stimuli to create a pseudoexcitement in order to ward off the painful feeling of
deadness that tends to overtake them. Children employ the resources appropriate to their
developmental phase-such as head banging among toddlers, compulsive masturbation in later
childhood, daredevil activities in adolescence. Adults have at their disposal an even wider
armamentarium of self-stimulation-in particular, in the sexual sphere, addictive pronliscuous
activities and various perversions, and, in the nonsexual sphere, such activities as gambling,
drugand alcohol-induced excitement, and a life style characterized by hypersociability. If the
analyst is able to penetrate beneath the defensive facade presented by these activities, he will
invariably find empty depression. Prototypical is the compulsive masturbation of lonely,
"unmirrored" children. It is not healthy drive pressure that leads to the endlessly repeated
masturbation, but the attempt to substitute pleasurable sensations in parts of the body
(erogenous zones) when the joy provided by the exhibition of the total self is unavailable.

The overstimulated self. The propensity toward recurrent states during which the self is
overstimulated arises in consequence of unempathically excessive or phase-inappropriate
responses from the side of the selfobjects of childhood, either vis-a-vis the activities of the
grandiose-exhibitionistic pole of the child's nascent self or vis-a-vis the activities of the pole
that harbors the guiding ideals, or both.

If it was the grandiose-exhibitionistic pole of a person's self that had been exposed to
unempathic overstimulation in childhood, then no healthy glow of enjoyment can be obtained
by him from external success. On the contrary, since these people are subject to being flooded
by unrealistic, archaic greatness fantasies which produce painful tension and anxiety, they
will try to avoid situations in which they could become the center of attention. In some such
individuals creativity may be unimpaired so long as no exhibition of the bodv self is involved,
directly or indirectly. In most of them, however, the creative-productive potential will be
diminished because their intense ambitions which had remained tied to unmodified grandiose
f'antasies will frighten them. In view of the fact, furthermore, that the self'objects' responses
had focused prematurely and unrealistically on the fantasied perform~nceo r the fantasied
products of the self but had failed to respond appropriately to the exhibitionisr of the nascent
nuclear self of the child as the initiator of the performance and as the shaper of products, the
self will, throughout life, be experienced as separate from its own actions and weak in
 19

comparison with them. Such people will tend to shy away from giving themselves over to
creative activities because their self is in danger of destruction by being siphoned into its own
performance or into the product it is shaping.

If it is predominantly the pole that harbors the ideals that had been overstimulated-e.g., by the
unempathically intense and prolonged display of a parental selfobject in need of aclmiration –
then it will be the persisting, intense need for the merger with an external ideal that will
threaten the equilibrium of the self. Since contact with the idealized selfbbject is, therefhre,
experienced as a danger and must be avoided, the healthy capacity for enthusiasm will be lost-
the enthusiasm for goals and ideals which people with a firm self can experience vis-8-vis the
admired great who are their guide and example or with regard to the idealized goals that they
pursue.

Closely related to the overstimulated self is the overburriend self. But while the
overstimulated self is a self whose ambitioris and ideals had been unempathically respontled
to in isolation, without sufficient regard for the total self, the overburdened self is a self that
had not been provided with the opportunity to merge with the calrnness of an omnipotent
selfobject. ?'he overburdened self, in other words, is a self that had suffered the trauma of
unshared emotionality. The result of this specific empathic failure from the side of the
selfobject is the absence of the self-soothing capacity that protects the normal individual from
being traumatized by the spreading of his emotions, especially by the spreading of anxiety. A
world that lacks such soothing selfobjects is an inimical, a dangerous world. No wonder,
then, that a self that had been exposed in early lire to states of "overburdenedness" because of
the lack of soothing selfobjects, will under certain circumstances experience its environment
as hostile. During states of "overburdenedness" in adult life-e.g., after the therapist had been
unempathic, in particular by failing to give his patient the right interpretation with regard to
his emotional state, or by pouring too much insight into him all at once, oblivious to the fact
that the absorption of the new understanding confronts the patient with an excessive task-a
patient might dream that he lives in a poisoned atmosphere or that he is surrounded by
swarms of dangerous hornets; and, in his wakeful awareness, he will tend to respond to
otherwise hardly noticeable stimuli as if they were attacks on his sensibilities. He will, for
example, complain of the noises in the therapist's office, of unpleasant odors, etc. These
reactions of patients with narcissistic personality disorders, especially when they involve an
overall attitude or irritability and suspiciousness, may at times strike us as alarmingly close to
those we encounter in the psychoses, in particular of course in paranoia. Unlike the more or
less systematized, chronic suspiciousness and counterhostility of the paranoic, however, these
manifestations of the overburdened state of the self appear, like the analogous
hypochondriacal preoccupations in states of self-fragmentation, always as the direct
consequence of a specific narcissistic injury, as a consequence of the unempathic,
overburdening response of a selfobject. They disappear speedily when an empathic bond with
the selfobject has been reestablished, i.e., in therapy, when a correct interpretation has been
made.

Behavioral Patterns and the Injured Self

It is with a good deal of reluctance that the psychoanalyst undertakes to present a typology of
behavior, even if he has been able to correlate his descriptions of frequently occurring clusters
of specific surface lnanifestations with specific underlying dynamic constellations or with
specific fbci of genetic experience. The best efforts of the past-Freud's (1908, 1910a, 1916,
193 1); Abraham's (1 92 1,1924, 1925)-are no exception to the rule that the simplified
 20

correlation of specific patterns of manifest behavior with universally present psychological

conditions which of necessity forms part of any such typology will, in the long run, impede
scientific progress. Why then do we persist in the attempt to devise characterologies! The
answer is that such classifications, even though we must be aware of the fact that they may
eventually limit our thinking and stand in our way, can for a while be valuable guides in
psychological territory in which we do not yet feel at home. There is no question, for
example, about the fact that an analyst who adheres strictly to the thought patterns so
beautifully laid out by Abraham (1921) will be hampered in his ability to understand some of
his patients. Had Mr. W.'s "obsessional" description of the contents of his trouser pocket
(Kohut, 1977, pp. 164- 169) beer1 seen i~nquestioninglya s a manifestation of his "anal
character," the crucial significance of his behavior, in the service of the maintenance of his
endangered self, would riot have been understood and the crucial genetic data would not have
come to light. But does that mean that it would have been better for analysis if Abraham had
never given us his typology? Decidedly not. It was of the greatest help to generations of
analysts and, so long as we are aware of the limitations of its applicability, continues to be of
limited service even today. But although we therefore feel that the setting up of'typologies is
justified, it behooves us to be explicit about the shortcomings inherent in any such attempt.
We have no doubt, for example, about the fact that the concept of a "mirror-hungry
personality," to be sketched out shortly, will be helpful as an orientating device within the
framework of the psychology of the self, just as Abraham's "anal character" was helpful
within the framework of drive psychology. But we must immediately say that there are some
mirror-hungry individuals whose personality structure is different from the one which,
according to our dynamic interpretation, is correlated to their mirror-hungry behavior-it is
different because it was not fbrined as the result of the specific traumas in childhood which,
accoi.ding to our genetic reconstruction, are the responsible agents. Mr. X.'s behavior (Kohut,
1977, pp. 199-219) might well be characterized as that of a mirror-hungry personality. Yet his
insistent cl'1 1' 111s for attention and praise, his arrogant superiority, were not manifestations
of the specific personality structure-characterized by simple deficiencies due to insufficient
mirroring attention in chiltlhood-that we should expect to encounter on the basis of our
description of the mirror-hungry person. His mirror-hungry behavior was embedded in a
much more coinplexly orgariizetl pathological personality. His behavior was the
manifestation of a sector of his personality that was isolated from his nuclear self' by a
"vertical splitw-a split that had come allout not because a lack of mirroring attention in
childhood but because of a specific fault in his mother's responses to him. While, to state it
more exactly, her approval of him had indeed been excessive, the focus of her mirroring had
not been selecteti in accordance with his needs-namely, to develop an independent and
vigorous self-but in accordance with hers-namely, to keep him dependent on her, indeed to
retain hirn within her own personality organization, in order to brace up her own, precariously
constituted self. There are many cases, however, where our brief explanation of the "mirror-
hungry personality" is more nearly correct. Miss F., for example (Kohut, 1971, pp. 283-293),
became indeed “mirror-hungry” – i.e., self-righteously demanding exclusive attention and
reassuring praise-because her phase-appropriate neecls for mirroring had not been !met by her
self-al~sorbed mother. But even in these cases the patients' demantlingness is not simply the
present-day expression of normal, self-assertive needs of childhood that have persisted
because they had not been appropriately responded to in the past. Because of the intensity of
these needs and, par excellence, because of these patients' conviction that they will not find an
echo of understanding empathy, they arouse deep shame which, in turn, leads to their
suppression, manifested by depressed and hopeless withdrawal – the latter behavior
sometimes, in particular in the narcissistic behavior disorders, alternating with bursts of
enragedly expressed but not effectively pursued demands that the wrong that had been done
 21

be set right. Having in the foregoing given voice to sorne of the arguments that speak for and
against psychoanalytic characterologies in general and to some of the pros and cons regarding
a classification of' behavioral syndromes in the area of' the disti~rbeds elf' in particular, we
will now throw further caution to the winds and outline some frequently encountered
narcissistic personality types.

Mirror-hungry personalites thirst for seltbbjects whose confirming and admiring responses
will nourish their famished self'. 'They are impelled to display themselves and to evoke the
attrition of others, trying to counteract, however fleetingly, their inner sense of worthlessness
and lack of self-esteem. Some of them are able to establish relationships with reliable
mirroring others that will sustain them tbr long periods. But most of them will not be noul-
ished for long, even by genuinely accepting responses. Thus, despite their discomfort about
their need to clisplay themselves and despite their sometimes severe stage fright and shame,
they must go on trying to find riew selfobjects whose attention and recognition they seek to
induce. Ideul-hungry personulitks are fi~reveirn search of others whom they can admire for
their prestige, power, beauty, intelligence, or moral stature. 'They can experience themselves
as wor-thwhile only so lor~ga s they can relate to selfobjects to whom they can look up.
Again, in some instances, such relationships last a long time and are genuinely sustaining to
both individuals involved. In most cases, however, the inner void cannot forever be filled by
these means. The ideal-hungry feels the persistence of the structural defect and, as a
consequence of this awareness, he begins to look for-and, of course, he inevitably finds-some
realistic defects in his God. 'The search for new idealizable selfobjects is then continued,
always with the hope that the next great figure to whom the ideal-hungry attaches himself will
not disappoint him.

Alter-ego personalities need a relationship with a selfobject that by conforming to the selfs
appearance, opinions, and values confirms the existence, the reality of the self. At times the
alterego- hungry personalities, too, may be able to form lasting friendships – relationships in
which each of the partners experiences the feelings of the other as if they had been
experienced by himself. "If thou sorrow, he will weep; if thou wake, he cannot sleep; thus of
every grief in heart he with thee doth bear a part" (Shakespeare, The Passionate Pilgrim). But
again, in most instances, the inner void cannot be filled permanently by the twinship. The
alter-ego-hungry discovers that the other is not himself and, as a consequence of this
discovery, begins to feel estranged from him. It is thus characteristic for most of these
relationships to be short-lived. Like the mirror- and ideal-hungry, the alterego – hungry is
prone to look restlessly for one replacement after another. The preceeding three character
types in the narcissistic realm are frequently encountered in everyday life and they should, in
general, not be considered as forms of psychopathology but rather as variants of the normal
human personality, with its assets and defects. Stated in more experience-distant terms, it is
not primarily the intensity of the need that brings about the typical attitude and behavior of
these individuals but the specific direction into which they are propelled in their attempt to
make up for a circumscribed weakness in their self. It is the location of the self-defect that
produces the characteristic stance of these individuals, not the extent of the defect in the self.
By contrast, the following two types are characterized less by the location of the defect and
more by its extent. 'I'liey niust, in general, be considered as lyirig within the spectrum of
pathological narcissism.

Merger-hungry persona1itie will impress us by their need to control their selfot~jectsi n an

enactment of the need For structure. Here, in contrast to the types sketched out befbre, it is the
need for merger that dominates the picture, the specific type of merger, however-whether with
 22

a mirroring or an idealized self object or with an alter ego-is less important in determining the
individual's behavior. Because the self' of these individuals is seriously clefective or
enfeebled, they need self objects in lieu of self structure. 'Their manifest personality features
and their behaviol – are thus dominated by the fact that the fluidity of the Ixundariesb etween
them and others interferes with their ability to discriminate their own thoughts, wishes, and
intentions from those of the self object. Because they experience the other as their own self,
they feel intolerant of his independence: they are very sensitive to separations from him and
they demantl – indeed tliey expect without question-the self object's continuous presence.

Contact – shunning personalities are the reverse of the merger hungry just described.
Although for obvious reasons they attract the least notice, they may well be the most frequent
of the narcissistic character types. 'I'hese individuals avoid social contact and become isolated,
not because they are disinterested in others, but, on the contrary, just because of their need for
them is so intense. 'The intensity of their need not only leads to great sensitivity to rejection-a
sensitivity of which they are painfully aware-but also, on deeper and unconscious levels, to
the apprehension that remnants of their nuclear self will be swallowed up and destroyed by
the yearned-fin- all-encompassing union.

The Treatment of the Narcissistic Behavior and Personality Disorders

The essential therapeutic goal of depth psychology is the extensive amelioration or cure of the
central disturbance, not the suppression of symptoms by persuasion or education, however
benevolently applied. Since the central pathology in the narcissistic behavior and personality
disol-ders is the defective or weakened condition of the self, the goal of therapy is the
rehabilitation of this structure. True, to external inspection, the clusters of symptoms and
personality features that characterize the narcissistic behavior disorders, on the one hand, and
the narcissistic personality disorders, on the other hand, are completely different: the self-
assertive claims of the first group appear to be too strong, those of the second not strong
enough. But depth-psychological investigation demonstrates that the psychopathological basis
of both disorders-the disease of the self-is, iri essence, the same.
With regard to those patients with self pathology, those with narcissistic behavior disorders,
who make overly loud narcissistic claims, and whose behavior appears to be overly self –
aasser – title, the therapist might be tempted to persuade them to relinquish their- demands
and to accept the limitations imposed by the realities of adult life. But doing this is like trying
to persuade a patient who suffers from a structural neurosis to give up his phobia, his
hysterical paralysis, his compulsive ritual. The overtly expressed excessive narcissistic
demands of these patients and what appears to be their overtly displayed excessive self-
assertiveness are a set ofcharacterologically embedded symptoms-they are not the
manifestations of an archaic narcissism that had not been tamed in early life and that must
now be tamed belatedly. On the contrary, it is the essence ofthe disease of these patients that
the access to their childhood narcissism is barred. The unfulfilled narcissistic needs of their
childhood with which they must learn to get in touch, which they must learn to accept, which
they must learn to express, lie deeply buried beneath their clamorous assertiveness, guarded
by a wall of shame ant1 vulnerability. If, on the basis of a therapeutic maturity- or reality
morality, the therapist concentrates on censuring the patient's manifest narcissistic, he will
drive the repressed narcissistic needs more deeply into repression---or he will increase the
depth of the split in the personality that separates the sector of the psyche that contains the
unresponded-to autonomous self from the noisily assertive one that lacks autonomy-and he
will block the unfblding of the narcissistic transference. These considerations apply whether
the patient's overt narcissistic demands are expressed via quietly persistent pressure, via
 23

attacks of scathing llarcissistic rage, or via emotional means that lie between these two
extremes. We all know people who annoy us by asking us again and again to repeat our
favorable comments concerning some successful performance of theirs. And we all also know
others who, throughout their life, go from one selfishly demanding rage attack to another,
seemingly oblivious to the rights and feelings ofthose toward whom their demands are
directed. If the analyst responds to these demands by exhortations concerning realism and
emotional maturity or, worse still, if he blamefully interprets them as the expression of their
insatiable oral drive that needs to be tamed or of a primary destructiveness that needs to be
neutralized anti bound by aggression-curbing psychic structures, then, as we saicl, the
development of the narcissistic transference will be blocked. But if he can sl~owto the patient
who demands praise that, despite the availability of average external responses, he must
continue to "fish for compliments" because the hopeless need of the unmirrored child in
him remains unassuaged, and if he can show to the raging patient the helplessness anti
hopelessness that lie behind his rages, can show him that, indeed his rage is the direct
consequence of the fact that he cannot assert his demands ef'ectively, then the old needs will
slowly begin to make their appearance more openly as the patient becomes more empathic
with himself. And when the repressions are thus ultimately relinquished-or when the
split maintained via disavowal is bridged-and the rialcissistic demands of childhood are
beginning to make their first shy appearance, the danger is not that they will now run to
extremes, but that they will again go into hiding at the first rebuff or at the first unempathic
response. Experience teaches us, in other words, that the therapist's major effort must be
concentrated on the task of keeping the old needs mobilized. If he succeeds in this, then they
will gradually-and spontaneously-be transformed into normal self-assertiveness and normal
devotion to ideals. The fbregoing conclusions hold also with regard to those individuals with
self pathology, those with narcissistic personality disturbances, who are overtly shy,
unassertive, and socially isolated, but whose coriscious and preconsious fantasies-"The Secret
Life of Walter Mittym--are grandiose. If the therapist believes that the patient's timidity,
shyness, and social isolation are due to the persistence of archaic illusions, specifically that
they are due to the persistence of his untamed childhood grandiosity as manifested in the form
of his grandiose fantasies, then he will feel justified in the attempt, through the application of
educational and moral pressure, to persuade the patient to relinquish these fantasies. But
neither the patient's fantasies nor his social isolation are the cause of his illness. On the
contrary, together they constitute a psychological unit which, as a protective device, attempts
to maintain the patient's precariously established self by preventing its dangerous exposure to
rebuff and ridicule. If the therapist is educational rather than analytic, if he restricts his
approach to the attempt to persuade the patient to give up his fantasied grandiosity, then the
distance between the patient's defective self, on the one hand, and the therapist as hoped-for
empathic responder to the patient's narcissistic needs, on the other hand, will increase and the
spontaneously arising movements toward the first significarit breach in the wall of sensitivity
and suspicion, the establishment of a narcissistic transference, will be halted. If, however, the
therapist can explain without censure the protective function of the grandiose fantasies and the
social isolation and thus dernonstrate that he is in tune with the patient's disintegration anxiety
and shame concerning his precariously established self, then lie will not interfere with the
spontaneously arising transf'ere~icem obilization of the old ilarcissistic needs. Despite
disintegration fears and shame, the patient will then be enabled, cautiously at first, later
increasingly rnore openly, to reexperience the need tor the selfobject's joyful acceptance of'
his childhootl gralicliosity ant1 for an omnipotent surrounding-healthy needs that had not
been responded to in early life. Ancl again, as in the case of 'the narcissistic behavior disoi-
ders, the remobilized needs will gratlually – and spontaneously-be transformed into norinal
self-assertiveness and normal devotion to ideals. In the foregoing we demonstrated that the
 24

therapeutic principles which we enunciated and the therapeutic strategy correlated to them are
based on the understanding of the celiral psychopathology of the analyzable disorders ofthe
self and that they have as their aim the amelioration aritl cure of' the central psychopathology.

Since the psychopathology of both major types of analyzable disorders is identical, it follows
that despite their divergent syniptomatology-noisy denlands ant1 intense activity in the social
field in the narcissistic behavior disoi-tiers; shame and social isolation in the narcissitistic
personality disorder-s-the process of treatment also is identical in its essence. Alitl the same,
of course, holds for the nature of the wholesome result that is achieved by the treatment: it is
the firming of the ti)rmerly erifeebled self, both in the pole that carries the patient's selt-
confidently held ambitions and in the pole that carries his idealized goals. It only needs to be
added now that the patient's revitalized self-confidence and the revitalized enthusiasm for his
goals will ultimately make it possible for him, whether he suffered from a narcissistic
behavior disorder or a narcissistic personality disorder, to take up again the pursuit of the
action-poisecl program arched in the energic field that established itself between his nuclear
ambitions and ideals, will make it possible for him to lead a fulfilling, creative-productive life.
With the preceeding remarks about some clinical lessons, derived from the application of the
psychology of the self to the therapeutic situation, our survey of' the psychology of the self
has reached its end. Since it would serve no good purpose if' we now made the attempt to
summarize an essay which, in itself, is in its essence a summary of the results of previous
investigations, we shall restrict our final statement to emphasizing once more that the brevity
of our presentation does not imply any conviction on OUI- part that we were offering the
outline of a finished system of thought. We sirnply tried to describe briefly the current state of
a new development in psychoanalysis-a development, it must be adcletl, which riot only has
by no means come to its end but which, on the contrary, appears to have lost none of its initial
momentum. The foregoing pages should, therefore, be considered as a survey of the current
state of the psychoanalytic psychology of the self-a survey that should assist us in planning
the further investigation of an as yet incompletely explored psychological field.
 25

Introductory Remarks to the Panel on

"Self Psychology and the Sciences of Man"

(1978)

I shall introduce our panel with a brief summary of the psychology of the self, placing special
emphasis on some features which specifically relate to the question that has given the title
to our proceedings today: Does the psychology of the self narrow the gap between
psychoanalysis and the other sciences of man? Most basic to the psychoanalytic psychology
of the self, I believe, is the fact that it assigns a defining position to empathy
and introspection. With the ascendancy of the psychoanalytic psychology of the self
psychoanalysis becomes now undisguisedly and outspokenly what, despite Freud's ambiguity
in regard to this issue, and despite his occasional firm disclaimers, we think it has always been
in its essence, namely, a branch of psychology- specifically the first scientific psychology of
complex mental states. 1

In the view of the self' psychologist this unambiguous espousal ofthe position that
psychoanalysis is the science that investigates the dimension of the world that is accessible
through introspection and empathy is instrumental in ushering in a new phase in
psychoanalysis: it is bringing about a move from a phase characterized by the preoccupation
with the elaboration and refinement of the established theories to a phase of renewed
emphasis on the gathering of primary data, a return to the empathic observation
of inner experience. The renewed preoccupation with the collection of primary data of
observation, however, does not imply a neglect of theory. On the contrary, by reemphasizing
careful observation, the self psychologist reestablishes the nlutually enriching interaction
between theory and observation that characterizes all of science. Creative observation, as I
should like to call it, is always interwoven with theory-it is directed by some vaguely
perceived new orientation and is followed by the increasingly more precise formulation of
new theoretical tenets and by the gradual evolution of a new theoretical framework. Some
outlines of the changes in theory that self psychology is bringing about can already be
discerned: a shift fi-om the previous emphasis on quasi-biological "drivesm-and, secondarily,
from the study of the psychological conflicts that arise concerning their expression and their
tarning- to the positing of primary configuralions that are already complex from the beginning
("molecular," not "atornic"; "organic," not "inorganic"; "psychological," not "biological").
These complex primary configurations are the "self" and its "constituents." Instead of working
within a framework of biological drives and of a mental apparatus, the self psychologist posits
a primary self' which, ill a matrix of empathic selfbbjects that is held to be as much a taken-
for-granted prerequisite of psychological existence as oxygen is fbr biological life,
experiences selfobject greatness (assertiveness, ambitions), on the one hand, and selfobject
perfection (idealization of one's goals, enthusiasm for one's ideals), on the other. Drives in
isolation, experiences of sex and aggression instead of experiences of a sexual and aggressive
self, are now considered as secondary phenomena. They are disintegration products following
the breakup of the primary complex psychological configurations in consequence of
(empathy) failures in the selfobject matrix. Subsequent to serios and prolonged or repetitive

1
Heinz Kohut introduced this panel tiiscussion at the first conference of' selfpsychology, in Chicago, Illinois, in
October 1978. All presentations 01' that panel+,xcept for this introduction-were subsequently published in
Aduanco in SrlfP.syctlology, edited by A. Goldberg, with Summarizing Reflections by Heinz Kohut. New
York: Int. Univ. Press, 1980. For the Summariring Reflections see this volume, pp. 261-357. These
"Introductory Remarks" are based on the earlier written full-length paper on this subject in this volunle, see
pp. 235-260.
 26

failures from the side of the selfobjects, assertiveness becomes exhibitionism, enthusiasni
beconies voyeurism; joy changes into depression and lethargy-zonal erotic pleasures (oral,
anal, phallic-genital) are pursued in an isolated fashion instead of being experienced as the
various pleasure goals of a joyfully assertive total self, and the aim of the pursuit of these
zonal pleasures is either to obtain consolation and soothing andlor to gain the sense of
aliveness that characterizes the active, healthy self. The shift from an orientation that
emphasizes the primacy of drives within a mental apparatus, and focuses on conflicts, on the
one hand, to a viewpoint that implies the primacy of the ambitions and ideals of the cohesive
self and focuses on the successes and failures experienced by the self within the matrix of the
sustaining empathy or thwarting nonempathy of its selfobjects, on the other, leads to a
different-more expanded and more significant-role of the time axis in self psychology.
Classical analysis had paid only scant attention to time. A time axis was implied during the
unrolling of drive-motivated mechanisms (the emphasis was, however, on the contents and
results of the mental activity--on the structures participating in the dynamics of limited
change-rather than on the time axis along which the unrolling of the psychic events took
place). And a time axis was also implied with regard to the reconstruction of the individual
past (the enlphasis was, however, more on process and structure-on the analytic process
penetrating to the repressed; on the layers that resisted penetration-than on the time axis along
which the events of the lift history of a person took place).

Taking account the fact that pain and unfulfillment tend to predominate over pleasure and
fulfillment in all phases of human life, we might say aphoristically that classical analysis
discovered the despair of the child in the depth of the adult-it established the actuality of the
past-while self psychology discovered the despair of the adult in the depth of the child; it
established the actuality of the future. Or, expressing the self psychological reconstruction in
still different ternis, we will say that the child whose self' is stunted by the selfobjects' failures
is, in his depression, mourning an unlived, unfulfilled future. The always present implication
of all formulations of self psychology is this: the significance of each moment of experience-
decisive in determining that some suffering and depression may be in essence a step toward
ultimate fulfillment or, in the obverse, that some pleasure and even joy may be in essence
sterile and thus part of a tragic failure-can only be evaluated against the assessment of the
total course of a creative-productive or noricreative sterile life cycle. Classical analysis had
focused on the in-depth elucidation of currently active patterns of drives and defenses-the
structural dynamic point of view-and on the elucidation of the relationship of these currently
active patterns to the crucial ones of the past-the genetic point of view. Psychoanalytic self
psychology focuses in addition on the in-depth elucidation of the self' in its current state and
on the elucidation of the impact of its past not only with regard to its present state but also
with regard to its future. Our awareness of the fact that the specific tensions set up between
the specific nuclear ambitions and nuclear ideals of a specific individual determine the whole
course of this individual's specific life-the recognition, in other words, that we are confronting
not only Guilty Man's conflicts over his drives but also Tragic Man's struggles to fulfill his
specific destiny-is of great importance not only in the field of clinical but, and especiallly, in
the various fields of applied analysis. There has been much debate about the worthwhileness
of applied analysis. I have always belonged to those who, though acknowledging its
limitations, have come to its defense. I am glad to say now that self psychology enables me to
raise an additional and, I believe, substantial argument in its favor. The most important source
of significant data obtainable about the psychological depths, more reliable even, I believe,
than the data obtained via the observation of children by analysts, is provided by the scrutiny
of the unrolling transference in the analytic situation. Self psychology, I assert, can come to
the defense of analysis outside the clinical setting by pointing out that the scrutiny of an
 27

unrolling life, if viewed as the struggles of a self to realize its nuclear pattern, can furnish data
that may be as significant and reliable as those obtained during therapeutic analysis. Thus the
examination of the unfolding total oeuvre of an artist, even the unrolling in time of certain
great single works of art-great tragedies are replicas of life, I believe-and, yet, even the study
of the unrolling destiny of a people, i.e., of the life curve of a "group self," can furnish data
that may be as significant and reliable as those obtained during therapeutic analysis.'