lterego (Kohut, 1978, p. 414). Mr. Z's mother played all of these roles in his life because his father left when Mr. Z was young. One found him absent of a man with whom he could idealize and identify; hence he was incapable of asserting his masculinity. Mr. Z's mother was of a pathological state and intermeshed her disturbance within the relationship with her son (Kohut, 1979, p. 13). "Faulty interaction between the child and his self-objects result in a damaged self." (Kohut, 1978, p. 414) This "abused" child developed a perspective that conformed to that of his unstable self-object, rather than creating an independent center of initiative. This led to number of narcissistic preoccupations including a focus upon his productions, masochistic fantasies, defensiveness and denial, and an arrogance of demandingness (Kohut, 1979, p. 14).The ultimate comprehension of the disturbances of Mr. Z can be attributed to the analyst's realization of the true foundations of the patient's symptoms. Once this realization occurred, his perspective changed in that he was able to perceive the significance of unmet essential needs as the reason for disturbances. In addition, he acknowledged that Mr. Z's self-structure could only be repaired through time and by a more patient and understanding demeanor on behalf of the analyst (Kohut, 1979, p.12). In the first analysis, the analyst merely tolerated Mr. Z's defensive behavior and progressively sought to oppose it, however in the second he perceived it as a transference of childhood feelings that resurfaced in therapy (Kohut, 1979, p. 12). Mr. Z had unintentionally witnessed sex between his parents at an early age and associated it with aggressiveness as his memories sequenced it following verbal battles between them. Defenses accompanying this obviously disturbing encounter include acts of grandiosity and overconfidence due to a supposed illusionistic oedipal victory (Kohut, 1979, p 26). Mr. Z w...
