James F. Masterson
Encyclopedia
James F. Masterson was a prominent American psychiatrist.
James Francis Masterson was born March 25, 1926, in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania
. He was an internationally recognized psychiatrist who helped inaugurate a new approach to the study and treatment of personality disorders including borderline
and narcissistic
, died April 12, 2010 of Pueumonia. He was 84.
in New York, serving as the head of its adolescent program in the 1960s and 1970s.
A trained psychoanalyst, Dr. Masterson was an authority on the narcissistic and borderline personality disorders. At his death, he was clinical professor emeritus of psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.
He was also the founder and director of the Masterson Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Established in 1977, the institute offers psychoanalytic training at its headquarters in Manhattan and its West Coast branch in San Francisco.
Dr. Masterson was one of the first people to bring the psychoanalytic approach known as object relations theory to bear on the study of personality disorders of the self. In so doing, he helped widen the lens through which personality disorders are viewed beyond the classical Freudian one that analysts had favored for decades. Object relations theory was primarily meant to explain human behavior. But in work he began in the mid-20th century, Dr. Masterson came to believe that it also held the key to personality, in particular the origin and treatment of personality disorders. (The psychoanalysts Heinz Kohut
and Otto F. Kernberg
also played seminal roles in applying the object relations model to the realm of personality.)
Masterson helped psychiatry shift to offer more complex, more effective models in the treatment of personality disorders. The enormous contribution he made was in the understanding of personality disorders and the evolution of personality per se.
Most closely associated with the British psychoanalysts Donald Winnicott
and Melanie Klein
, object relations theory
centers on infants' early attachment to their mothers. This attachment is vital, the theory holds — so vital that disruptions can cause psychological disturbances later on. Classical Freudianism roots personality disorders in the Oedipal period, roughly between the ages of 4 and 6. Applying the object relations model, Dr. Masterson placed the roots even farther back, in the pre-oedipal period between about 18 months old and 36 months old.
The pre-Oedipal disorders include all the personality disorders by definition, but are much more concerned with the issue of maternal availability. Dr. Masterson argued that these disorders crucially involve the conflict between a person's two "selves": the false self, which the very young child constructs to please the mother, and the true self
. The psychotherapy of personality disorders, is an attempt is to put people back in touch with their real selves.
Dr. Masterson, whose work also encompassed the neurobiology of personality disorders, was the author of many books. Among them are The Personality Disorders Through The Lens of Attachment Theory and the Neurobiologic Development of the Self (Zeig, Tucker & Theisen 2005), a clinical approach, The Search for the Real Self: Unmasking the Personality Disorders of Our Age (Free Press, Simon & Schuster 1988), written for a general readership, The Narcissistic and Borderline Disorders (Bruner/Mazel 1981), and The Psychiatric Dilemma of Adolescence (Little, Brown, 1967).
A distinguished life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, he was also a fellow of the American College of Psychoanalysts, a founder of the American Society of Adolescent Psychiatry and a past president of the society's New York chapter.
Dr. Masterson became so well known as an expert on narcissism that he sometimes attracted patients for whom only a high-profile therapist would do — in other words, narcissists. In the 1980s, after The New York Times cited him as an authority on the disorder, he received a dozen calls from people wanting treatment.
Too busy to accept new patients, Dr. Masterson referred the callers to his associates. As The Times reported in 1988, not a single one made an appointment.
, exhibitionist and closet. Both fail to adequately develop an age- and phase- appropriate self because of defects in the quality of psychological nurturing provided, usually by the mother. The exhibitionist narcissist is the one described in DSM-IV and differs from the closet narcissist in several important ways.
The closet narcissist is more likely to be described as having a deflated, inadequate self perception and greater awareness of emptiness within. The exhibitionist narcissist would be described as having an inflated, grandiose self perception with little or no conscious awareness of the emptiness within. Such a person would assume that this condition was normal and that others were just like them.
The closet narcissist seeks constant approval from others and appears similar to the borderline
in the need to please others. The exhibitionist narcissist seeks perfect admiration
all the time from others.
James Francis Masterson was born March 25, 1926, in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania
Elkins Park, Pennsylvania
Elkins Park is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is split between Cheltenham and Abington Townships in the suburbs of Philadelphia, roughly from Center City, Philadelphia.-Points of interest:...
. He was an internationally recognized psychiatrist who helped inaugurate a new approach to the study and treatment of personality disorders including borderline
Borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder is a personality disorder described as a prolonged disturbance of personality function in a person , characterized by depth and variability of moods.The disorder typically involves unusual levels of instability in mood; black and white thinking, or splitting; the...
and narcissistic
Narcissistic personality disorder
Narcissistic personality disorder is a personality disorder in which the individual is described as being excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity...
, died April 12, 2010 of Pueumonia. He was 84.
Life
His undergraduate studies at Notre Dame University were interrupted by Army service in World War II. After the war, he earned a medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He was long associated with the Payne Whitney Psychiatric ClinicPayne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic
At his death in 1927, Payne Whitney bestowed the funds to build and endow the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic on the Upper East Side of Manhattan...
in New York, serving as the head of its adolescent program in the 1960s and 1970s.
A trained psychoanalyst, Dr. Masterson was an authority on the narcissistic and borderline personality disorders. At his death, he was clinical professor emeritus of psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.
He was also the founder and director of the Masterson Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Established in 1977, the institute offers psychoanalytic training at its headquarters in Manhattan and its West Coast branch in San Francisco.
Dr. Masterson was one of the first people to bring the psychoanalytic approach known as object relations theory to bear on the study of personality disorders of the self. In so doing, he helped widen the lens through which personality disorders are viewed beyond the classical Freudian one that analysts had favored for decades. Object relations theory was primarily meant to explain human behavior. But in work he began in the mid-20th century, Dr. Masterson came to believe that it also held the key to personality, in particular the origin and treatment of personality disorders. (The psychoanalysts Heinz Kohut
Heinz Kohut
Heinz Kohut was an Austrian-born American psychoanalyst best known for his development of Self psychology, an influential school of thought within psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory which helped transform the modern practice of analytic and dynamic treatment approaches.-Early life:Kohut was born...
and Otto F. Kernberg
Otto F. Kernberg
Otto Friedmann Kernberg is a psychoanalyst and professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is most widely known for his psychoanalytic theories on borderline personality organization and narcissistic pathology...
also played seminal roles in applying the object relations model to the realm of personality.)
Masterson helped psychiatry shift to offer more complex, more effective models in the treatment of personality disorders. The enormous contribution he made was in the understanding of personality disorders and the evolution of personality per se.
Most closely associated with the British psychoanalysts Donald Winnicott
Donald Winnicott
Donald Woods Winnicott was an English paediatrician and psychoanalyst who was especially influential in the field of object relations theory. He was a leading member of the British Independent Group of the British Psychoanalytic Society, and a close associate of Marion Milner...
and Melanie Klein
Melanie Klein
Melanie Reizes Klein was an Austrian-born British psychoanalyst who devised novel therapeutic techniques for children that had an impact on child psychology and contemporary psychoanalysis...
, object relations theory
Object relations theory
Object relations theory is a psychodynamic theory within psychoanalytic psychology. The theory describes the process of developing a mind as one grows in relation to others in the environment....
centers on infants' early attachment to their mothers. This attachment is vital, the theory holds — so vital that disruptions can cause psychological disturbances later on. Classical Freudianism roots personality disorders in the Oedipal period, roughly between the ages of 4 and 6. Applying the object relations model, Dr. Masterson placed the roots even farther back, in the pre-oedipal period between about 18 months old and 36 months old.
The pre-Oedipal disorders include all the personality disorders by definition, but are much more concerned with the issue of maternal availability. Dr. Masterson argued that these disorders crucially involve the conflict between a person's two "selves": the false self, which the very young child constructs to please the mother, and the true self
True Self
True Self is fourth album by the Chicago-based music group Soil. It was released in the US on May 2, 2006 via DRT Entertainment. This is the band's first album with new vocalist AJ Cavalier. True Self leaked onto P2P and BitTorrent sites on March 4, almost two months before its official release...
. The psychotherapy of personality disorders, is an attempt is to put people back in touch with their real selves.
Dr. Masterson, whose work also encompassed the neurobiology of personality disorders, was the author of many books. Among them are The Personality Disorders Through The Lens of Attachment Theory and the Neurobiologic Development of the Self (Zeig, Tucker & Theisen 2005), a clinical approach, The Search for the Real Self: Unmasking the Personality Disorders of Our Age (Free Press, Simon & Schuster 1988), written for a general readership, The Narcissistic and Borderline Disorders (Bruner/Mazel 1981), and The Psychiatric Dilemma of Adolescence (Little, Brown, 1967).
A distinguished life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, he was also a fellow of the American College of Psychoanalysts, a founder of the American Society of Adolescent Psychiatry and a past president of the society's New York chapter.
Dr. Masterson became so well known as an expert on narcissism that he sometimes attracted patients for whom only a high-profile therapist would do — in other words, narcissists. In the 1980s, after The New York Times cited him as an authority on the disorder, he received a dozen calls from people wanting treatment.
Too busy to accept new patients, Dr. Masterson referred the callers to his associates. As The Times reported in 1988, not a single one made an appointment.
Masterson on narcissism
In 1993, Masterson proposed two categories for pathological narcissismNarcissism
Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...
, exhibitionist and closet. Both fail to adequately develop an age- and phase- appropriate self because of defects in the quality of psychological nurturing provided, usually by the mother. The exhibitionist narcissist is the one described in DSM-IV and differs from the closet narcissist in several important ways.
The closet narcissist is more likely to be described as having a deflated, inadequate self perception and greater awareness of emptiness within. The exhibitionist narcissist would be described as having an inflated, grandiose self perception with little or no conscious awareness of the emptiness within. Such a person would assume that this condition was normal and that others were just like them.
The closet narcissist seeks constant approval from others and appears similar to the borderline
Borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder is a personality disorder described as a prolonged disturbance of personality function in a person , characterized by depth and variability of moods.The disorder typically involves unusual levels of instability in mood; black and white thinking, or splitting; the...
in the need to please others. The exhibitionist narcissist seeks perfect admiration
Narcissistic supply
Narcissistic supply is a concept in some psychoanalytic theories which describes a type of admiration, interpersonal support or sustenance drawn by an individual from his or her environment ....
all the time from others.
Works
- Psychotherapy of the Borderline Adult: A Developmental Approach. (Brunner/Mazel, 1976) ISBN 0-87630-127-8
- The Search for the Real Self: Unmasking the Personality Disorders of Our Age. (Collier Macmillan, 1988) ISBN 0-02920-291-4
- The Emerging Self: A Developmental Self & Object Relations Approach to the Treatment of the Closet Narcissistic Disorder of the Self (Routledge, 1993)
- The Personality Disorders Through The Lens of Attachment Theory and the Neurobiologic Development of the Self (Zeig, Tucker & Theisen, 2005)
- The Search for the Real Self: Unmasking the Personality Disorders of Our Age (Free Press, Simon & Schuster, 1988)
- The Narcissistic and Borderline Disorders (Brunner/Mazel, 1981)
- The Psychiatric Dilemma of Adolescence (Little, Brown, 1967)