Terry D Cooper

Grace for the Injured Self: The Healing Approach of Heinz Kohut Terry D Cooper

Grace for the Injured Self shows the reader how the 'self psychology' developed by Heinz Kohut can be an influential theory for pastoral care. The late Kohut affirmed that religion is not only an expression of the self, but can also sustain the self in the alliance between faith and grace, with self psychology and empathy. Cooper and Randall articulately explore Kohut's psychoanalytic perspective of 'self psychology', orientated towards pastoral care for parishioners. The authors ascertain how the human condition is affected by 'self injury', and the relationship between this and the traditional notions of sin. Two interviews with Kohut, never before published in the UK, give the reader unique insights into the psychoanalyst who many regard as the most important figure in psychology since Sigmund Freud.