ABSTRACT
The clinical constructs underlying couples therapy are drawn mainly from self-psychology and object relations. The successful blending of these two theoretical perspectives can effectuate a new and positive therapeutic experience, as the case illustrations in chapter 9 reveal. Although both selfpsychology and self-object approaches are useful in treating narcissistic/ borderline relations, it has been suggested that the mirroring and empathy techniques of self-psychology are more suited to meet the narcissist’s mirroring needs, while object relations are more suited to the borderline’s containment needs.
