The Development of the Self and its Vulnerability from the Viewpoint of Self-Theory

Abstract

New born infants have not only id which is the reservoir of inpulsive energy, but also the sense of the self which needs acceptance of care-giver. Child development is not the process from dependence to autonomy or from undifferentiation to separation-individuation, but the process of self-objectification by expanding child’s subjective world through deepening the connection with the other.

But as the consequence of the self-objectification that is conscious of the self seen from the other, the vulnerability of the self and the sense of shame occur inevitably. As the consequence of it, the self introjects the other and must begin to cure his wound. It is the self-object which Kohut insists that has such functions. Main self-object’s functions are mainly mirroring, idealizing and twinships. Deviant behavior occurs as a consequence of deepening of painful vulnerability or the lack of the supportiveness of self-objects for it.