Paper Session B

2. A Life of One's Own:
A Case Study of the Loss and Restoration
of the Sense of Personal Agency

Self Psychology Page | 20th Conference Program

This paper concerns a therapeutic process focusing on the specific mirroring of the sense of personal agency. Symptoms and potentially dangerous enactments, ranging from the prolonged inability to work to the manic pursuit of fame and fortune, were shown to encapsulate the patient s effort to recapture a surviving remnant of the sense of agency. A description is given of the way in which the patient s attempts to break free from enslaving ties were transformed in the context of the validating therapeutic dialogue into a more enduring sense of being the author of his actions and of being in possession of a life that was truly his own.

Self Psychology Page | 20th Conference Program