Somatic Intersubjective Self Psychology broadens Kohut’s important starting premise, that of the self-selfobject system into the embodied domain, illuminating how interoceptive attunement fosters self-cohesion, affect regulation, and the pre-symbolic structuring of self-experience. Grounded in an intersubjective systems perspective, SISP recognizes that embodied relational rhythms co-create meaning within the dynamic interplay of subjectivities, deepening empathic responsiveness and enriching the self-organizing processes of embodied intersubjectivity.
More specifically, Somatic Self Psychology extends Kohut’s foundational ideas as follows:
- Feeling and Affect Regulation: Kohut emphasized selfobject responsiveness in maintaining self-cohesion. Somatic Intersubjective Self Psychology expands responsiveness by incorporating the embodied dimension of affect regulation—tracking the therapist’s interoceptive cues and the relational vitality affects as precursors to emotional states, deepening empathic attunement.
- Self-Organizing Self Processes: Kohut’s self-organizing principle highlights the relational structuring of self-experience. In the embodied domain of SISP, relational motoric rhythms, gravitational forces, and spatial dynamics contribute to the unconscious self-structuring process. These ideas were first theorized by Daniel Stern in his work on the Development of Self and Domains of Relatedness, as well as in his discussions of Vitality Affects.
- Structuralisation and Pre-Symbolic Experience: Traditional Self Psychology primarily engaged with verbal reflective processes. SISP integrates Stern’s concept of development particularly the nonverbal senses of self which capture pre-symbolic relational rhythms that shape the proto-organization of selfhood before cognitive reflection emerges.
- Empathy and Intersubjective Resonance: Kohut’s conceptualization of empathy as the vehicle of psychological attunement and understanding is enriched through somatic awareness. SISP highlights embodied attunement—how weight, time/rhythm, spatiality, and flow define the sensory-motor interactions which serve as foundational forms of empathic connection beyond verbal exchange.