In Why It Is Good to be Good, John H. Riker shows how modernity's reigning concept of the self undermines moral life and lays the basis for the epidemic of cheating that is devastating social and economic institutions. He argues that by accepting Kohut's brilliant and original psychoanalytic concept of the self, modernity can have a naturalist account for showing why it is personally good to be a morally good person.

Chapter 1-The Moral Problem of Modernity Chapter 2-Kohut's Theory of the Self Chapter 3-Kohut and the Philosophic Tradition Chapter 4-A New Metapsychology: Freud, Aristotle, Heidegger, and Kohut Chapter 5-Why It Is Good to Be Good Chapter 6-A Self Psychological Vision of Ethical Life Chapter 7-Self Psychology and Modernity: Actualizing Self in the Age of Desire Chapter 8-Social Transformations Chapter 9 Bibliography