Transforming Aggression

Frank M. Lachmann, Ph.D., is a member of the Founding Faculty of the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity; Clinical Assistant Professor, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis; and Training and Supervising Analyst, Postgraduate Center for Mental Health. A member of the advisory boards of psychoanalytic institutions in Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Toronto, he is author or co-author of more than 75 professional publications.

This is a comprehensive and spirited overview of the clinical application of Kohut's self psychology to the therapeutic issues surrounding assertion, reactive aggression, and what Dr. Lachmann dubs eruptive aggression. Countering the common charge that self psychology does not (or does not know how to) deal with the varying expressions of aggression in treatment and in life. Lachmann carefully explicates the distinctions between the self psychological and other (relational, ego psychological, and Kleinian) approaches to these issues. This book is valuable reading for all of us concerned with the manifestations of aggression and hostility in this world, and what we, as concerned professionals, can do to ameliorate their hurtful effects.