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Termination in Self Psychology: Heinz Kohut's Contribution
Charles B Strozier1, David Strug, Konstantine Pinteris
1453 3rd St., Brooklyn, NY 11215.
Psychoanalytic Review
|December 27, 2019
Summary
Psychoanalytic termination is explored through Heinz Kohut's self psychology, offering a fluid, nonlinear perspective. His ideas anticipate modern views on treatment endings and the self's movement toward wholeness.
Area of Science:
- Psychoanalysis
- Psychology
- Psychotherapy
Background:
- Psychoanalysis has historically struggled with defining termination.
- Early psychoanalytic thought, including Freud's, presented pessimistic views on endings.
- The field, particularly in the US, developed rigid concepts of psychoanalytic termination.
Purpose of the Study:
- To synthesize Heinz Kohut's scattered ideas on psychoanalytic termination.
- To demonstrate how Kohut's self psychology offers a more open and fluid understanding of treatment endings.
- To argue that Kohut's concepts prefigure contemporary self and relational psychoanalytic theories of termination.
Main Methods:
- Review and synthesis of Heinz Kohut's writings on self psychology and treatment.
- Conceptual analysis of Kohut's ideas in relation to psychoanalytic termination.
- Comparative analysis with recent self and relational psychoanalytic literature on termination.
Main Results:
- Kohut's self psychology provides a framework for understanding termination as nonlinear and fluid.
- His concept of the self moving toward cohesion and wholeness offers a new perspective on endings.
- Kohut's ideas align with and anticipate modern self and relational psychoanalytic approaches to termination.
Conclusions:
- Heinz Kohut's self psychology offers valuable insights into the complexities of psychoanalytic termination.
- Termination can be understood as a process reflecting the self's movement toward integration and wholeness.
- Kohut's work remains relevant for contemporary discussions on treatment endings in psychoanalysis.
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