ABSTRACT
Subject to definitional broadening on a remarkable scale, we have grown familiar and comfortable with the sociological selves. For the purposes of this paper, the author has constructed the term 'transformational self' to herald the attainment of a cluster of self-state capacities, that positions the individual to assume mature status in society. A second stream, the author considers is the interpersonal/relational/intersubjective school. It is located within the postmodern, constructivist philosophy, is non-empirical in its data collection, and is organised primarily by the contextual metaphor. The author's later work is organised around both the organismic and contextual metaphors. Kohut also defined the self in terms of subordinate and supraordinate viewpoints that the author will not review here because that topic is discussed as an aspect of locating the transformational self in a developmental framework in. This fourth stream is essential to the construction of the transformational self.
