In this book, John Hanwell Riker develops and expands the conceptual framework of self psychology in order to offer contemporary readers a naturalistic ground for adopting an ethical way of being in the world.
Ethics, Kohut's Self Psychology, and Modern Society
Exploring the impact of modernity on moral life, John H. Riker argues that contemporary views of the self contribute to widespread cheating in society. He draws on Kohut's psychoanalytic concept of the self to provide a naturalistic explanation for why being morally good is beneficial on a personal level. The book delves into the relationship between self-concept and ethical behavior, highlighting the need for a reevaluation of modern values to restore integrity in social and economic institutions.
The exploration of unconscious processes by Nietzsche and Freud necessitates a reevaluation of moral agency and responsibility. The book critiques contemporary psychology for failing to adequately address these concepts while arguing for a new moral psychology that incorporates unconscious functioning. It emphasizes the importance of understanding one's unconscious motivations to cultivate a morally and psychologically mature self, positioning this self-awareness as central to ethical responsibility.
"John H. Riker's book represents an important extension of self psychology into the critical moral issues of modernity. He brilliantly uses self psychology to provide a new basis for ethical life and in so doing transforms our notion of what it means tolive as moral persons."--Ernest Wolf MD, author of Treating the Self: Elements of Clinical Self Psychology.
Drawing from Kohut's conceptualisation of self, Riker sets out how contemporary America's formulation of persons as autonomous, self-sufficient individuals is deeply injurious to the development of a vitalizing self- structure—a condition which lies behind much of the mental illness and social malaise of today's world.