Mahler and Kohut: Perspectives on Development, Psychopathology, and Technique

Author: Selma KramerPublisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.Hardcover:ISBN 10: 1568211562ISBN 13: 978-1568211565This is the first book to compare, contrast, and integrate the work of two of the most influential figures in modern psychoanalysis: Margaret Mahler and Heinz Kohut. While Kohut (1980) acknowledged that he and Mahler were "digging tunnels from different directions into the same area of the mountain, " the complex task of integration was made difficult by their often divergent clinical perspectives. Yet for both, the issues of self and identity were primary. Mahler mapped out the steps through which a growing child must pass in order to achieve a solid sense of identity. Kohut placed the self in the center of his theory of both personality development and psychopathology. Mahler delineated, in borderline individuals, the lasting effects of failure to establish a stable inner representation of the mother. Kohut traced his narcissistic patients' archaic longings to early failures of paren