Clinical Sport Psychology - Beyond Performance & Psychopathology

In clinical sport psychology, athletes are not viewed in the narrow terms of their performance, but in the broader perspective of the athlete’s entire life (Gardner & Moore, 2006), well-being (Gardner, 2007) and subjective experience.

Currently, the majority of research on elite athletes, as well as intervention strategies, are performance-related (Sullivan & Nashman, 1998), thus focusing on a relatively narrow aspect of the athlete’s psychology. This reduction to performance, even in sport consultation, has been recognized as limiting by an increasing number of sport psychologists, who are attempting to embrace a more holistic perspective in their practice (Friesen & Orlick, 2010).

Although clinical psychology is mostly mentioned in the context of athletes’ psychopathology (Stainback et al., 2007), clinical psychology has the potential to enrich the understanding of the athlete’s subjective experience while he struggles to thrive in a demanding environment.

The presentation will suggest Kohut’s self psychology theory (1971, 1977, 1984) as a framework for understanding the athlete’s subjective experience. Self psychology emphasizes self-value as a basic human need (Wolf, 1988), and since the professional athlete’s value is constantly examined every time he walks on to compete. Although the theory is highly suitable to sport environment, it has not been employed in sport psychology. Integration of a clinical psychology perspective (e.g. self psychology) into sport will enable us to grasp the athlete’s subjective experience. It offers the opportunity for better practice, research, and rapport with athletes, in order to remove obstacles to their thriving within and outside the sport environment.