Schizophrenia and the Self: Contributions of Psychoanalytic Self-psychology

This article explores the unique contribution of psychoanalytic self-psychology to an indepth understanding of the subjective experience of the self in schizophrenia. The author makes the argument that with creative adaptation Kohut's experience-near concept of the primacy of the self—its development and vicissitudes of fragmentation/cohesion—and the salience and legitimacy of self-object needs in all human relationships can be applied to psychotic and schizophrenic experience. When so applied, there is reason to suspect that an important bridge to the subjective inner life of the schizophrenic patient will be achieved.