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.
Development
1971
introduced by Heinz Kohut
Names as self-objects the archaic objects a person experiences as part of the self rather than as independent centres of initiative.
In The Analysis of the Self (1971)
Relations
- 1971 gave rise to Narcissistic transference
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.
- 1971 introduced by Heinz Kohut
Names as self-objects the archaic objects a person experiences as part of the self rather than as independent centres of initiative.
Works
See also
People
References
- The Analysis of the Self1971Evidence for a relation