Kohut Memorial Lecture Honoree:
Joseph Lichtenberg, M.D.

Shelley Doctors, Ph.D.

Joseph Lichtenberg, M.D., the first elected president of the International Council of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology and an enthusiastic proponent of the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP), had the honor of delivering the Kohut Memorial Lecture at the Psychology of the Self Conference held in Baltimore, Md., in October 2005. This event follows the Saturday Luncheon and is typically attended by everyone at the conference, as those who do not opt for a formal noontime meal are nonetheless welcomed into the Ballroom for the lecture.

Ernest Wolf, M.D., a former Kohut Memorial Lecturer and Dr. Lichtenberg's friend since medical school, provided a warm and light-hearted introduction, recalling the circumstances before the creation of Self Psychology which threw together the two future world-class analysts; medical students were asked to choose partners to dissect a cadaver and they chose each other! Not only did this lead to a life-long friendship, but it was fortuitous for the dissemination of Self Psychology. Later, hearing about Self Psychology from his friend Ernie, then residing in Chicago, Joe became persuaded early on and was, I think, one of the first east coast analysts to become a Kohutian loyalist. Joe found Self Psychology and Self Psychology found one of its leading proponents, for Joe went on to have an astoundingly successful and prolific psychoanalytic career. Via his 10 books, over 50 articles, countless national and international lectures, and at the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (ICP&P) in Washington, D.C., and the many other institutes where he has taught and supervised, thousands of clinicians have been inspired by Joe's writings and teachings to discover and practice Self Psychology.

Joe spoke extemporaneously for 45 minutes and treated the audience to an overview of psychoanalytic discoveries and trends from its inception to the present, with an eye toward gleaning, "What Lasts and What Fades", the subject of his talk. According to Lichtenberg, "what lasts" in psychoanalysis is a general consensus among practitioners that there is "a way of doing things", although "what fades" may involve some specific ideas about what must or mustn't be done; while a consensus may always exist, what is agreed upon may change.

Dr. Lichtenberg began his explication of "What Lasts and What Fades" by considering psychoanalytic listening, noting that psychoanalysis came into being because patients (from Anna O. to Miss F.) demanded that their well-meaning doctors (Breuer and Kohut) put aside their own ideas and listen to them. In the case of Kohut and Miss F., listening with fewer preconceptions led not only to a truer understanding of Miss F., but to one of the foundational precepts of Self Psychology - the importance of understanding the patient from within the patient's point of view and the beneficial impact on the patient of such communicated understanding. So listening has lasted, though what changes is "how to listen and what to listen for."

Lichtenberg went on to say that analysts, even when listening, are nonetheless always making "guesstimates" to explain what they are hearing. "Theoretician-analysts" (Lichtenberg's phrase) abstract from their patients' data to general principles that may illuminate the human condition. Though Freud's earliest ideas about what he heard from patients concerned trauma and "strangulated affects" (emotions that were not accessible to them), he moved away from this brilliant early insight (and the factual truth of trauma) in favor of experience distant concepts drawn from the science of his time. Lichtenberg referred to Freud's theory of psychic energy as a "wrong guess" and suggested that Kohut's own early "guess" - that data relevant to Self Psychology derived solely from the clinical experience - was Kohut's reaction to Freud's "wrong guess" - Freud's incorporation of scientific models of other disciplines. It was as if Kohut had said, "Get all of these borrowings from physics out of here - it's what's going on in this room!" Lichtenberg noted that as early as 1980, at the Boston Self Psychology conference, he, Michael Basch, and Daniel Stern were nonetheless claiming that there was information in the new field of infant research that was hugely relevant to clinical work. Kohut's earliest dictum (1959) can be said to have lasted - self psychologists still privilege what can be understood through empathy and introspection - but the absolute prohibition in regard to knowledge imported from ancillary scientific studies has faded and infant research now informs the psychoanalytic understanding of human interaction.

Lichtenberg next addressed the theoretical frame utilized to organize psychoanalytic data, beginning with Kohut's use of the concept of structure, borrowed from the ego psychology of the '40s and '50s. He spoke of Kohut's movement away from the macro structures of id, ego and superego to the idea of "self structures" and how the language of self and selfobject (which continues to have relevance) shifted to more experiential language. Then, just as the explanatory power of "structure" began to seem too constricting in comparison to the immediacy of self experience and the detailed understanding (made possible by Self Psychology) of how it shifts, the language of experience came to be seen as insufficient in comparison to the language of systems. Thus the emphasis on "structure" appears to be fading as the concept of non-linear systems is on the ascendancy. (Additionally, non-linear systems theory allows us to connect with other sciences in a broader way, as disciplines such as neurophysiology utilize the non-linear systems frame.)

Though the title of Joe's talk might have suggested a historical review and evaluation of changes in psychoanalytic terminology and concepts, Joe, characteristically, was more interested in preparing for the future yet-to-come than in rehashing the past. Throughout his career, sidestepping dogma, Joe has used his lively intelligence to discern the heart and soul of clinical matters. His latest contribution, introduced in this talk, is an attempt to make sense of the very many languages that have waxed and waned in psychoanalysis. Joe envisions a generic psychoanalysis, a living breathing enterprise that withstands the battles created by competing explanatory systems. This generic psychoanalysis, nonetheless, contains formative elements. Lichtenberg offered 5 easily comprehensible terms he feels describe what happens in this generic psychoanalysis - Influence, Inference, intention, communication, and regulation. He then proceeded to demonstrate how these elements, abstracted from the entire psychoanalytic corpus, describe the key features of the psychoanalytic situation. Influence, for example, operates within an individual, as the individual's past affects his current functioning, and influence operates within dyads (in both directions), and is a factor in larger non-linear systems. Inference, operating explicitly and implicitly is an ever-present aspect of human interaction and constantly influences all thinking, feeling, and action. The term "intention" opens the door to a consideration of motivation, a subject dear to the heart of the creator of Motivational Systems Theory. Those listening especially carefully heard Joe add a new idea to his comprehensive comments on intentions/motivations. To Bolby's assertion that the need for safety is bedrock in human existence, and to Kohut's contention that our most profound motivation is the desire for selfobject experience, Joe Lichtenberg added the concept of informational exchange - the interactive need to know and be known. "Informational exchange," as Lichtenberg described it, is implicit in many other motivations, from affiliative needs to physiological regulation but seems sufficiently important to be recognized as a key human need.

Those of us who have listened to Joe over the years know that teaching is Joe's passion and were enthralled by the interconnections he was developing. Speaking of communication and regulation brought him squarely to affect, affect toleration, modulation, and regulation and affective communication, resonance, and attunement. It was fitting that Joe brought this dazzling, wide-ranging talk to an end with a charming anecdote that said tons about affect resonance, attunement, and communication, and illustrated, once again, Kohut's powerful personal impact.

At the Boston conference in 1980, apparently Joe was quite anxious about his presentation, as he knew he had been outside Kohut's original circle. Just before he was to speak, Kohut (we can infer), sensed the influence of Joe's anxiety on Joe's daughter Ann, whose resonance with that state was evidently communicated to Kohut, sitting nearby. Kohut leaned over to her, intent on calming her and said, communicating and regulating, "Don't worry. Your daddy will be all right."

What lasts will certainly be Kohut's influence, his life work, recorded in books, journal articles, discussions, lectures and letters. And, what will never fade is the memory of the warmth and kindness with which he embodied his views and personally transmitted them to others. What lasts, Lichtenberg might say, is psychoanalysis, an enormously powerful, living, breathing enterprise. What fades, and what ought to fade are attempts to explain its workings that unnaturally delimit the richness of human experience, narrowing our thinking about human growth and development. I believe Joe's identification of these interlocking features of psychoanalysis will last and will move us toward further useful investigation of (sic) "how analysis cures". Thank you Joe, for a brilliant romp - "Everything you wanted to know about psychoanalysis..." and for your own lasting contributions, your warmth, intelligence and human touch!

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