Kohut Memorial Lecture: Race, Place, and Selfie

Abstract

We live in a “selfie” culture. We are now able, by the merest touch, to put ourselves into a picture. Kohut understood that in order to be mirrored or empathically responded to in any way we needed to be seen. I reflect on how Kohut’s work of selfobject longings is strangely true in today’s world, even though he could not have anticipated to what degree technology would bear it out. His theory is a nuanced, multi-layered exegesis on this theme. This article is about Kohut viewed through the lens of current times. As it is a subjective view, along the way you will hear how Kohut’s theories impacted my own analysis and hear how and why Russell Meares was instrumental in bringing Kohut’s ideas to Australia. My South African racial past was not discussed in my 14-year analysis. I note and speculate on the absence of race in Kohut’s theorizing and show how the Internet influenced my need to examine my racial past after apartheid ended and how valuable Kohut’s theories were in that regard. I conclude by reflecting on Kohut’s contribution by relating it to the significance of social media, then and now.