ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to explore the effectiveness of self psychology concepts in comprehending psychological changes after brain injury. In order to do so, the case of a woman with a right-hemisphere stroke who underwent psychotherapy and holistic rehabilitation is presented. Self psychology, like so many other fields within psychoanalysis, developed as a clinical discipline, without any reference to neurobiology. The self is the essence of an individual’s psychological being, consisting of sensations, feelings, thoughts, and attitudes toward oneself and the world. Self psychology purports that healthy narcissism is a nondefective structural completeness of the self which can sustain its coherence, continuity, and self-esteem. One further potential link between self psychological concepts and neuropsychology might come from a consideration of the functions of the right cerebral hemisphere. Resistance is usually a rich interplay of organicity, psychodynamic considerations, mood factors, and dispositional traits.
