Counseling Troubled Youth

PART 1 -- BECOMING ONESELF: YOUTH IN DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVE Chapter 1: The Self amid Symptoms of Youthful Despair. Chapter 2: Object Relations Theory and the Borderline Self. Chapter 3: The Case of Stan. Chapter 4: Self Psychology and Pathological Narcissism. Chapter 5: The Case of John Turner. PART 2: COMING TO ONESELF: YOUTH IN ESCHATOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE Chapter 6: The Eschatological Self. Chapter 7: The Case of Laurie. Chapter 8: The Case of Bobbie Griffith. The author suggests that today's youth reflect a widespread loss of hope or faith in a meaningful future. He uses the concepts of developmental object relations theory (from James F. Masterson) and self-psychology ((from Heinz Kohut) as conversational partners with the Christian doctrine of hope (from Jurgen Moltmann). He presents the concept of "the eschatological self" which suggests that the future coming at us is just as important as our past and present, helping us to understand young people's problems as rooted in the inability to keep past and present in tension.