Transformations in Self Psychology highlights the manner in which contemporary self psychology has become, in the words of series editor William Coburn, "a continuing series of revolutions within a revolution." Of special note are contributions that explore the bidirectional influences between self psychology and other explanatory paradigms. The volume begins with Stern's thoughtful attempt to integrate self-psychological and relational perspectives on transference-countertransference enactments. Fosshage and Munschauer's presentation of a case of "extreme nihilism and aversiveness" elicits a series of discussions that constructively highlights divergent perspectives on the meaning and role of enactment in treatment and on the so-called empathy/authenticity dichotomy. The productive exploration of theoretical differences also enters in the redefinition of notions of gender and sexuality, a topic of increasing interest to self psychologists. Differing perspectives, which give rise to differing clinical emphases, emerge in the exchanges of Clifford and Goldner, and of VanDerHeide and Hartmann. The special "contextualist" demands of work with intercultural couples foster a more integrative sensibility, with self-psychological borrowings from interpretive anthropology and attachment theory. Clinical contributors to Volume 20 explore manifestations of a tension that permeates all analytic work: that between the patient's newly emerging ability to expand the self in growth-consolidating ways and the countervailing dread to repeat. Enlarged by Malin's personal reflections of "Fifty Years of Psychoanalysis" and by book review essays focusing on the writings of Lachmann and Stolorow, respectively, Transformations in Self Psychology bespeaks the continuing vitality of contemporary self psychology.

Transformations in Self Psychology highlights the manner in which contemporary self psychology has become, in the words of series editor William Coburn, "a continuing series of revolutions within a revolution." Of special note are contributions that explore the bidirectional influences between self psychology and other explanatory paradigms. The volume begins with Stern's thoughtful attempt to integrate self-psychological and relational perspectives on transference-countertransference enactments. Fosshage and Munschauer's presentation of a case of "extreme nihilism and aversiveness" elicits a series of discussions that constructively highlights divergent perspectives on the meaning and role of enactment in treatment and on the so-called empathy/authenticity dichotomy. The productive exploration of theoretical differences also enters in the redefinition of notions of gender and sexuality, a topic of increasing interest to self psychologists. Differing perspectives, which give rise to differing clinical emphases, emerge in the exchanges of Clifford and Goldner, and of VanDerHeide and Hartmann. The special "contextualist" demands of work with intercultural couples foster a more integrative sensibility, with self-psychological borrowings from interpretive anthropology and attachment theory. Clinical contributors to Volume 20 explore manifestations of a tension that permeates all analytic work: that between the patient's newly emerging ability to expand the self in growth-consolidating ways and the countervailing dread to repeat. Enlarged by Malin's personal reflections of "Fifty Years of Psychoanalysis" and by book review essays focusing on the writings of Lachmann and Stolorow, respectively, Transformations in Self Psychology bespeaks the continuing vitality of contemporary self psychology.

The third volume in the distinguished Progress in Self Psychology series brings together the most exciting issues in a rapidly expanding field. Frontiers in Self Psychology is highlighted by sections dealing with self psychology and infancy and self psychology and the psychoses. Clinical contributions include several case studies along with a reconsideration of dream interpretation. Theoretical contributions span issues of gender identity, boundary formation, and the biological foundation of self psychology.

Volume 14 of Progress in Self Psychology, The World of Self Psychology, introduces a valuable new section to the series: publication of noteworthy material from the Kohut Archives of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. In this volume, "From the Kohut Archives" features a selection of previously unpublished Kohut correspondence from the 1940s through the 1970s. The clinical papers that follow are divided into sections dealing with "Transference and Countertransference," "Selfobjects and Objects," and " Schizoid and Psychotic Patients." As Howad Bacal explains in his introduction, these papers bear witness to the way in which self psychology has increasingly become a relational self psychology - a psychology of the individual's experience in the context of relatedness. Coburn's reconstrual of "countertransference" as an experience of self-injury in the wake of unresponsiveness to the analyst's own selfobject needs; Livingston's demonstration of the ways in which dreams can be used to facilitate "a playful and metaphorical communication between analyst and patient"; Gorney's examination of twinship experience as a fundamental goal of analytic technique; and Lenoff's emphasis on the relational aspects of "phantasy selfobject experience" are among the highlights of the collection. Enlarged by contemporary perspectives on gender and self-experience and a critical examination of "Kohut, Loewald, and the Postmoderns," Volume 14 reaffirms the position of self psychology at the forefront of clinical, developmental, and conceptual advance.

The premier volume in the Progress in Self Psychology Series was completed two years after Heinz Kohut's death in 1981. Hence, this volume has a unique status in the history of self psychology: it bears the imprint of Kohut while charting a course of theoretical and clinical growth in the post-Kohut era. Biographical reminiscences about Kohut (Strozier, Miller) and commentaries on Kohut's "The Self-Psychological Approach to Defense and Resistance" [chapter seven of How Does Analysis Cure?] (M. Shane, P. Tolpin, Brandchaft, Oremland) are juxtaposed with a section of self-psychological reassessments of interpretations (Basch, A. and P. Ornstein, Goldberg). Clinical papers cover the selfobject transferences (Hall, Shapiro), patient compliance (Wolfe), and the "self-pity response" (Wilson), while theoretical contributions present ideas of Stolorow, Bacal, White, and Detrick that are foundational to their subsequent writings. This volume helped to shape the theoretical and clinical agenda of self psychology in the decades following Kohut's death.

Volume 12 of the Progress in Self Psychology series begins with reassessments of frustration and responsiveness, optimal and otherwise, by MacIsaac, Bacal and Thomson, the Shanes, and Doctors. The philosophical dimension of self psychology is addressed by Riker, who looks at Kohut's bipolar theory of the self, and Kriegman, who examines the subjectivism-objectivism dialectic in self psychology from the standpoint of evolutionary biology. Clinical studies focus on self- and mutual regulation in relation to therapeutic action, countertransference and the curative process, and the consequences of the negative selfobject in early character formation. A separate section of child studies includes a case study exemplifying a self-psychological approach to child therapy and an examination of pathological adaptation to childhood parent loss. With a concluding section of richly varied studies in applied self psychology, Basic Ideas Reconsidered promises to be basic reading for all students of contemporary self psychology.

Volume 15 of Progress in Self Psychology conveys the rich pluralism of contemporary self psychology with respect to a central theoretical and clinical issue: the nature of the self and the manner in which is can best be studied. This topic is initially addressed through a series of papers reassessing selfobject transferences and the selfobject function of interpretation. It is then approached via the theory of psychoanalytic technique, with papers that focus on boundaries and intimacy and on "Surface, Depth, and the Isolated Mind". And it culminates in two case studies that elicit animated discussion delineating different perspectives - intersubjective, motivational systems, and self-selfobject - on the self in relation to the therapeutic process. Two studies comparing Melanie Klein and Heinz Kohut; a discussion of how current cultural attitudes affect parenting; a relational view of the therapeutic partnership; and an integration of Silvan Tomkin's affect theory with self psychology add breadth to this timely and provocative collection. Volume 15 includes additional letters from the Kohut Archives and a moving account of Kohut's struggle with his own impending death.