The Difference Between Kotut’s and Jung’s Theory of “Self”

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Jung vs. Kohut

The theories show several similarities and differences.

The main question relates to the relationship between the two concepts.

Psychoanalyst attempts to find a consensus between the theories.

The similarities and differences are observed in three major aspects:

Both psychoanalysts stresses on the importance of the self.
Both emphasize that the self has an intrapsychic structure.
It makes their descriptions of the self and its nature seem to overlap.
Their schools of thought differ in a number of ways.
Differences only arise due to different approaches to “self”.
Similarities are more profound than differences.
Both state that the it is impossible to fully describe the “self”.
Kohut- self refers to the cognitive impenetrability.
Jung- self cannot overpower human power of compression.
Kohut- self is the way in which an individual experiences “himself as himself”.
Kohut – self is a permanent mental structure of human behaviors, memories and feelings.
Each individual experiences this with time, and it gives them the feeling of “being oneself”.

Jung’s theory is the wire armature for a sculpture.
Kohut’s self is the clay to finish Jung’s work.
It is a metaphorical approach to the differences.
Jung – humans become involved with other individuals who correspond to the human essential nature.
Jung- Other humans are objects to form archetypes.
Kohut- Other humans are objects to satisfy child’s needs.

The origin of self: Kohut vs. Jung

Kohut- goals are the realization of the objective of life.
This blueprint objective has been laid on in a person’s nuclear self.
Jung- based on the process of unfolding the self throughout an individual’s life.
Jung- it aims at achieving the possible personality’s wholeness.
Jung- self is a totality of both conscious and unconscious human psyche.
It is purposive in nature and acts as a center for organizing.

Psyche

Jung- stresses on the theory of neurosis.
Concerned with the idea of the tendency of the psyche to split.
Also the autonomy of the split components or associated associations, ideas or feelings.
The components behave like splinter psyches.
But they are in harmony with the overall human personality.
Kohut’s splitting is evident but less important.

The concept of splitting Psyche: Kohut v. Jung

Kohut- structuralization of the inner world of a child results from the parent’s self objects.
Their emphatic responsiveness to the inner needs of the child.
Jung’s theory- a child’s prior psychological matrix is inborn.
Experiences determined by the child-environment interaction.
Kohut- eating and assimilation of food illustrates the process of creation of intrapsychic structure.
The food has been assimilated into the body of the person.