A Mind of One's Own: A Psychoanalytic View of Self and Object

by Robert A. Caper

This collection of papers, written over the last six years by Robert Caper, focuses on the importance of distinguishing self from object in psychological development. Robert Caper demonstrates the importance this psychological disentanglement plays in the therapeutic effect of psychoanalysis. In doing so he demonstrates what differentiates the practice of psychoanalysis from psychotherapy; while psychotherapy aims to ease the patient towards "good mental health" through careful suggestion; psychoanalysis allows the patient to discover him/herself, with the self wholly distinguished from other people and other objects.

Genres: Psychoanalysis

178 pages, Paperback

First published November 5, 1998

Reviews

[Tylor Lovins]

This is a book to read if you’re struggling to connect disparate pieces of psychoanalytic theory together, particularly those inspired by the object relations tradition, and are looking for clarification on how these ideas link to one another conceptually, in the analytic situation, and in the history of analysis, and if you’re looking for what kinds of questions might be worth asking in relation to such concepts as projective identification, splitting, containment, holding, and unconscious phantasy as they come to bear weight in the transference and interpretation of transference.