Last class I briefly mentioned a psychologist named Heinz Kohut in an attempt to draw a comparison between his Self Psychology theories and those Guattari's. Both authors share a distaste for Freud's traditional psychoanalytic conception of the self as a concrete and insular entity.

Kohut has not, by any means, incorporated media and technology theory into his work, yet he may have something to offer those of us who are interested in how "I" and its subjectivity may be necessarily connected with external people and concepts.

Kohut's theory of self psychology rests on the concept of the selfobject. This selfobject is generally a person who is experienced as part of yourself/"I" for narcissistic purposes. So, for example, the expected control we may have over others is somehow commensurate to the control we feel we have over our own bodies and minds. Our relationships with people serve us much more than just making us happy according to Kohut. They actually allow us to realize our intrinsic potentials because they are intertwined with our personal constitutions.