The Negative Selfobject

The paper suggests that the selfobject concept includes very important developmental experiences that can be understood most helpfully as negative selfobject. The powerful shaping function of caretaker responses can often shape the emergent self as bad, worthless, depleted and defective. These inner shapes of the self are derived from interactions with caretakers in which the affect of the caretaker include rage, censure, indifference. They occur in the context of the child’s need for affirmation and response. Rather than cause deficits or result in accommodation, these interactions directly shape the emergent self in distorted ways. It is important for the treating therapist of such patients to understand that such shaping is not defensive or secondary, that it is a primary effect of caretaker affects that the child could not control. Treatment strategies are discussed.