ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the ways in which a person experiences him or herself as being human, or being treated as human. It aims to develop a model for understanding and treating a patient who feels a lack of this sense. The chapter presents a review of the psychological literature on humanness and humanity, and psycho-biographical research on Heinz Kohut. It reviews the ways in which psychoanalysis describes a sense of being human, and how Kohut employed the term “twinship” to describe a sense of “a human being among other human beings.” Although the exploration of a sense of being human includes philosophical and ethical issues, the chapter focuses on practical issues in psychoanalytical work with traumatized patients and attempts to examine how such patients, along with their analysts, can articulate the psychological meaning of the lack of a sense of being human.
