ABSTRACT
The three presentations that I discuss in this paper are wide ranging and thought provoking. Drs. Goldberg and Stolorow offer some specific ideas on how to expand further the domain of self psychology and how to improve its conceptual language and its experience-near theories. Dr. Wallerstein offers his views—directly and forcefully stated—on where the central clinical contributions of self psychology fit into classical psychoanalysis, in what way these have significantly expanded the field, and where self psychology had gone too far in its theoretical claims. Each of these three major papers deserve a lengthy, separate, and detailed appreciation and critique. But because I agree with the main thrust of Goldberg's and Stolorow's ideas, I only comment briefly on their contributions and then turn my attention to some selected core issues raised by Wallerstein.
