Concept
Selfobject
In self psychology, another person, or an aspect of one, experienced not as separate but as part of the self, because it performs functions the self cannot yet perform for itself, such as confirming its worth, soothing it or lending it strength. Kohut wrote of self-objects from 1971 and came to hold that the need for them lasts a lifetime, maturing rather than disappearing.
- Introduced by
- Heinz Kohut
- Key works
- 1
- Related
- Narcissistic transference
gave rise to
- Narcissistic transference 1971 In these transferences the patient experiences the analyst as a self-object, a part of the self that supplies its missing functions; Kohut later renamed them selfobject transferences.
introduced by
- Heinz Kohut 1971 Names as self-objects the archaic objects a person experiences as part of the self rather than as independent centres of initiative.