Drawing from Kohut's conceptualisation of self, Riker sets out how contemporary America's formulation of persons as autonomous, self-sufficient individuals is deeply injurious to the development of a vitalizing self-structure—a condition which lies behind much of the mental illness and social malaise of today's world.
By carefully attending to Kohut's texts, Riker explains the structural, functional, and dynamic dimensions of Kohut's concept of the self. He creatively extends this concept to show how the self can be conceived of as an erotic striving for connectedness, beauty, and harmony, separate from the ego. Riker uses this distinction to reveal how social practices of contemporary American society foster skills and traits to advance the aims of the ego for power and control, but tend to suppress the needs of the self to authentically express its ideals and connect with others. The book explores the impact that this view can have on clinical practice, and concludes by imaginatively constructing an ideal self-psychological society, using Plato's Republic as a touchstone.
Informed by self psychology and philosophy, this book is essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and philosophers, seeking to revisit and revise constructions of both self and humanity.
Betal enkelt med kort, Klarna, Apple Pay eller Google Pay. Ikke fornøyd? Du har alltid 14 dagers angrerett. Les mer i våre vilkår. Har du spørsmål, send oss en e-post på hello@memmo.org.
Memmo gjør det enklere å studere – uansett hvor du er i verden. Hos oss samler du pensumbøker og smarte studieverktøy på ett og samme sted: sammendrag, quizer, podkaster og flashcards. Og så Ted, din studiekompis som svarer på alt du lurer på. Over 50 000 studenter studerer allerede her – bygget for at du skal lære raskere og stresse mindre.