Abstract

This presentation proposes a way to integrate Self Psychological and Relational models of therapeutic action. It argues that consistently approaching patients through the practice of Kohut’s empathy evokes a “leading edge” transference that opens or begins the treatment and guides the overall process. It also facilitates the emergence of impasses outlined by Mitchell, at a time and in a context in which they can be constructively addressed in a transformative way. This constructive addressing of impasse opens up the treatment relationship beyond a selfobject tie so that it becomes more fluid and multi-faceted. Winnicott’s “leading edge” ideas about destruction, survival, and “breakdown” are used to further elaborate this Self-Relational integration.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Identify “leading edge” aspects of patients’ experience and intentions as they emerge in clinical material.

2. Apply clinical interventions that support and validate patients’ movement toward their leading-edge aspirations.

3. Recognize “trailing-edge” dynamics in the patient–therapist relationship, including conditions under which these dynamics become more salient in the therapeutic interaction.

4. Implement clinical strategies to address trailing-edge relational dynamics in ways that support therapeutic progress.

Biography

Peter Kaufmann, PhD is a faculty member and supervisor at the Institute for

Psychoanalytic Studies and Supervision (IPSS) and the National Institute for the

Psychotherapies (NIP), and serves as co-coordinator of IPSS’s four-year training program. His clinical and scholarly interests focus on comparative psychoanalysis and the integration of clinical approaches across theoretical traditions, particularly Self Psychology and Relational psychoanalysis.

He has published several papers reflecting this integrative orientation, including When empathy opens (2023), as well as Working with men who please too much (2008) and On transforming the reparative quest (2012), which also reflect his interest in mourning and pathological accommodation. In collaboration with Jenny Kaufmann, he has written recent papers and presentations on emerging from the shadows of parental narcissism. His current work explores the creative role of playful assertion and aggression in therapy, developed in his forthcoming paper, On being the edgy alter ego.

References

Kaufmann, P. (2023). September 11th revisited: Break on through to the other side. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 18, 552–558.

Kaufmann, J., & Kaufmann, P. (2023). Big moves toward integration: Sheldon Bach’s framework for the treatment of narcissistic disorders. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 40(1), 20–24.

Stern, S. (2024). Breathing together: Needed relationships and complex selfobjects. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context, 19(3), 274–302.

Abstract

Contemporary psychoanalytic writers have cautioned against reifying internal objects (Aron, 1996; Cooper, 2010; Davies, 2006; Seligman, 2018), while others emphasize the emergent qualities of the internal world (Bass, 2001). This paper extends these perspectives by conceptualizing internal objects as fundamentally processual rather than fixed structures. Psychological development is proposed to involve a lifelong capacity to generate new internal objects through ongoing investment in both the external world and the internal object world. When development proceeds with minimal obstruction, this capacity is supported by the internalization of a “good enough” and vitalizing object that facilitates the creation of flexible internal links. These links allow individuals to imbue experience with symbolic meaning and form new connections even when associations are partial or indirect. When this generative process is disrupted, internal links may become rigid and associated with experiences of psychological deadness. Reframing the “good object” as a vitalizing process highlights its role in sustaining psychological vitality and internal growth, with implications for clinical work aimed at restoring generative internal processes.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Define the concept of flexible internal links, and describe how this concept can be used to assess patients’ internal object systems and capacities for vitality in experience.

2. Apply clinical interventions that support and validate patients’ movement toward their leading-edge aspirations.

3. Describe the developmental origins and clinical manifestations of rigid internal links, and explain their relationship to experiences of psychological deadness or diminished vitality.

4. Identify conditions that support the development and maintenance of the good object process, and recognize clinical indicators that this process has been disrupted or inhibited.

Biography

Rachel Sopher, LCSW, is Faculty and Supervisor at the National Institute for the

Psychotherapies Training Institute (NIP) and the National Training Program (NTP); she serves on the Executive Committee and as Faculty and Supervisor at the Stephen Mitchell Center for Relational Studies. She is Senior Editor of Psychoanalytic Perspectives and has written and presented widely on issues of aliveness and deadness in the transference-countertransference. Rachel is co-editor, with Amy Schwartz-Cooney, of the collection Vitalization in Psychoanalysis and maintains a private practice in New York City.

References

Caflisch, J. (2020) “When reparation is felt to be impossible”: Persecutory guilt and breakdowns in thinking and dialogue about race. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 30(5), 578–594.

Schoen, S. (2023) The patient’s experience of the analyst’s physicality: It’s what’s on the outside that counts. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 33(2), 240–255.

Schwartz Cooney, A. (2018). Vitalizing enactment: A relational exploration. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 28(3), 340–354.

Stern, S. (2019) Airless worlds: The traumatic sequelae of identification with parental negation. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 29(4), 435-450.