ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the treatment of self-esteem issues from the multiple viewpoints of relational psychotherapy. By way of comparison, one could say that, according to H. Kohut, the person who suffers from pathology of self-esteem is like a plant deprived of water and light. For O. Kernberg, treatment of self-esteem issues, when they are pathologically narcissistic, is therefore radically different. One of the things that one can notice in the case of people with difficulties in the area of self-esteem is that on the surface of the dialogue a particular defence blossoms: perfectionism. As the therapeutic relationship develops and deepens, a powerful transference in direct proportion to the importance of the narcissistic issue can be seen: an idealization/devaluation transference, two sides of the same phenomenon. The therapeutic relationship may symbolically represent the couple relationship, the authority relationship, and the parent-child relationship, and within it the client may activate his self-esteem issues.
