by George Hagman (USA) and Harry Paul (USA)
Intersubjective Self Psychology: A Primer offers a comprehensive overview of the theory of intersubjective self psychology and its clinical applications. Readers of this Routledge book will gain an in-depth understanding of one of the most clinically relevant analytic theories of the past half-century, fully updated and informed by recent discoveries and developments in the field of intersubjectivity theory. The volume provides detailed chapters on the clinical principles of intersubjective self psychology and their application to a variety of clinical situations and diagnostic categories such as trauma, addiction, mourning, child therapy, couples treatment, sexuality, suicide and severe pathology.
Retaining Kohut’s emphasis on the self and selfobject experience, the book conceptualizes the therapeutic situation as a bi-directional field of needed and dreaded selfobject experiences of both patient and analyst. Through a rigorous application of the ISP model, each chapter sheds light on the complex dynamic field within which self-experience and selfobject experience of patient and analyst/therapist unfold and are sustained. The ISP perspective allows the therapist to focus on the patient’s strengths, referred to as the leading edge, without neglecting work with the repetitive transferences, or trailing edge. This dual focus makes ISP a powerful agent for transformation and growth.
Co-edited by George Hagman, Harry Paul, and Peter B. Zimmerman, Intersubjective Self Psychology provides a unified and comprehensive model of psychological life with specific, practical applications that are clinically informative and therapeutically powerful.
George Hagman, LCSW is a clinical social worker and psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City and Stamford, CT. He is a member and faculty member of the Training and Research Institute in Intersubjective Self Psychology, and the Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. He is the author of books on psychoanalysis, self psychology, art, and bereavement.
Harry Paul, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice in New York City and Chappaqua, NY. He is a founding member, past president, faculty, supervisor and training analyst at the Training and Research Institute in Intersubjective Self Psychology. He is co-author of The Self Psychology of Addiction and Its Treatment: Narcissus in Wonderland, and he has co-authored papers on addiction and self psychology. He currently sits on the international Council of IAPSP.
