Analysis and System: A Marriage

Self-psychology describes a psychoanalytic model developed by Heinz Kohut and based upon a systemic concept of the ‘self-object’, a system of self and object which differentiates progressively from an early symbiotic fusion at birth to healthy interdependence at around three years of age. These stages of differentiation were originally described by Margaret Mahler and interpreted by her within a Kleinian framework. Self-psychology differs in many key concepts from the Kleinian and other psychoanalytic models, and Kohut reinterpreted Mahler's work from this new perspective. The systemic or dyadic basis of Kohutian theory provides a bridge between psychoanalytic models and systems models of marital dynamics, an important meeting ground for interpsychic and intrapsychic viewpoints. Progressive differentiation within a dyadic system can be applied developmentally to the mother-infant, husband-wife, or therapist-patient dyad, as can the self-object transference concept.