Self psychology and the distinctiveness of psychotherapy

After a brief review of some major theoretical points of the psychology of the self, psychotherapy is delineated from psychoanalysis via this perspective. The suggestion is made that the difference lies less in the method than in the goal. Clinical examples illustrate that the goal of psychotherapy consists of a repair of the self. This is in contrast to the goal of psychoanalysis which is a reorganization of the self An accurate diagnostic assessment of the nature of the individual psychopathology enables one to recommend either reparative (that is, psychotherapeutic in the narrow sense) or reconstructive (psychoanalytic) treatment.