Psychosocial Theories of the Self

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Benjamin Lee Center for Psychosocial Studies On March 29-April 1, 1979, the Center for Psychosocial Studies held a conference in Chicago on "New Approaches to the Self" in which all the authors in this volume partici­ pated. Over the years the Center has acted as a communica­ tions link and coordination point for interdisciplinary dis­ cussions and research. Several years ago, we discovered that there was a renewed interest among psychoanalysts, anthro­ pologists, and developmental psychologists in the investiga­ tion of the self, and the reason for this groundswell of ac­ tivity was the discovery of the importance of problems of meaning and interpretation in each discipline. Since inves­ tigators in each of these disciplines were relatively ignor­ ant of developments in the other approaches, we felt that a conference would be a timely catalyst. Each of the authors gave a presentation at the conference, and it is a mark of the success of the interdisciplinary effort that almost all the papers were extensively revised in response to the dis­ cussions. The first three papers by Arnold Goldberg, Ernest Wolf, and Robert LeVine all use Heinz Kohut's psychoanalytic self psychology as their starting point. Goldberg places the self within a broader framework of philosophical and psychoana­ lytic theories, finally locating it in the types of communi­ cative relationships a person constructs in his interactions with others. Wolf's paper explicates the basic ideas and innovations of Kohut's self psychology.