Affect Regulation and the Repair of the Self

This volume (one of two) is the first presentation of Schore’s comprehensive theory in book form, as it has developed since 1994.

In 1994 Allan Schore published his groundbreaking book, Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self, in which he integrated a large number of experimental and clinical studies from both the psychological and biological disciplines in order to construct an overarching model of social and emotional development. Since then he has expanded his regulation theory in more than two dozen articles and essays covering multiple disciplines, including neuroscience, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, developmental psychology, attachment, and trauma. Affect Regulation and the Repair of the Self contains chapters on neuropsychoanalysis and developmentally oriented psychotherapy. It is absolutely essential reading for all clinicians, researchers, and general readers interested in normal and abnormal human development.

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Book Review – By Dawn L. Thiselton (PDF)

Dawn L. Thiselton

This book provides a fascinating integration between the clinical and the neuroscientific and as such advances the necessary, promising and vital dialogue between the two.

Daniel N. Stern, M.D.

Professor of Psychology at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, Cornell Medical School, Author of The Interpersonal World of the Infant

Allan Schore’s classic volume has radically transformed our psychoanalytic understanding of psychological disorder. Incredibly, this book has achieved the same for our understanding of the psychotherapeutic process. Even more remarkable, it is filled with underlying practical implications of how we work, could work or even should work psychotherapeutically, given our new understanding of the brain. Schore has provided a wonderful window for the psychotherapist to look at neuroscience and go back to the consulting room more enlightened, more confident and above all more competent.

Peter Fonagy, Ph.D., F.B.A.

Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis at University College London and Director, Child and Family Center, The Menninger Clinic, Kansas

In this wide-ranging treatise, Allan Schore emphasizes that ‘affects are psychobiological phenomena and the self is bodily based.’ He proceeds to clarify why, if we wish to advance psychoanalytic thought, me must come to terms with the right hemisphere centers of gravity for our affective nature. He has woven vast swaths of knowledge and thinking into a coherent tapestry that can also serve as a welcome carpet for a new generation of neuropsychoanalytic research that supports and advances sensitive and humane psychotherapeutic practice.

Jaak Panksepp, Ph.D.

Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus, Bowling Green State University, author of Affective Neuroscience

Affect Regulation and the Repair of the Self accomplishes a remarkable task of integration. After decades in which psychoanalytic theory has seemed constrained to a listless mainstream with only a few alternate branches, a flood of new information has poured from three sources: infant research, neuropsychological research, and research on attachment and the development of self. Schore masters these incredibly strong and rich currents of understanding regarding the human condition and its dysregulation. He brings the significance of affect and right brain activity to the forefront, and thereby offers a contemporary perspective on the solution of puzzles regarding mind and body, emotional health and dysfunction.

Joseph Lichtenberg, M.D.

Editor-in-Chief of Psychoanalytic Inquiry. Author of Psychoanalysis and Motivation and coauthor of The Clinical Exchange, A Spirit of Inquiry: Communication in Psychoanalysis.