ABSTRACT
When Dr. Kaplan invited me to participate in this symposium, I understood his request as wanting me to respond to the question: In what ways can early developmental research contribute to a discussion of “a psychology of the self within psychoanalysis”? (to use Dr. Kohut's familiar designation of the topic). I would like to convey in this presentation the point that one of the chief contributions developmental research can make is that of stimulating a basic shift in the way we view the organization of behavior. I am now talking about “organization,” not about the behavioral elements themselves, moving from the view that the organization of behavior is the property of the individual to the perspective that it is the property of the system of which the individual is a part. In order to make this point I have to illustrate what we mean by “system.” Then I need to address the next question of how we can understand the way organization in the system contributes to an understanding of an ontogeny of self.
