The application of self-psychology to short-term counselling

Abstract

This article explores how key aspects of Heinz Kohut's self-psychology can inform short-term counselling work. Initially a summary is offered of Kohut's developmental theory, his understanding of the nature and causes of psychopathology and his view of the analytic cure. The application of his ideas to short-term counselling is then discussed. Specifically, it is suggested that short-term therapeutic work based on self-psychology involves a stronger emphasis on the curative aspects of the selfobject transference between client and therapist, a more limited notion of the role of interpretation, and a different understanding of working through to that of long-term self-psychological analysis.