Heinz Kohut (1913-1981) stood at the center of the twentieth-century psychoanalytic movement. After fleeing his native Vienna when the Nazis took power, he arrived in Chicago, where he spent the rest of his life. He became the most creative figure in the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, and is now remembered as the founder of 'self psychology,' whose emphasis on empathy sought to make Freudian psychoanalysis less neutral. Kohut's life invited complexity. He obfuscated his identity as a Jew, negotiated a protean sexuality, and could be surprisingly secretive about his health and other matters. In this biography, Charles Strozier shows Kohut as a paradigmatic figure in American intellectual life: a charismatic man whose ideas embodied the hope and confusions of a country still in turmoil. Inherent in his life and formulated in his work were the core issues of modern America. The years after World War II were the halcyon days of American psychoanalysis, which thrived as one analyst after another expanded upon Freud's insights. The gradual erosion of the discipline's humanism, however, began to trouble clinicians and patients alike. Heinz Kohut took the lead in the creation of the first authentically home-grown psychoanalytic movement. It took an emigre be so distinctly American. Strozier brings to his telling of Kohut's life all the tools of a skillful analyst: intelligence, erudition, empathy, contrary insight, and a willingness to look far below the surface.

The Austro-American psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut was one of the foremost leaders in his field and developed the school of self-psychology, which sets aside the Freudian explanations for behavior and looks instead at self/object relationships and empathy in order to shed light on human behavior. In How Does Analysis Cure? Kohut presents the theoretical framework for self-psychology, and carefully lays out how the self develops over the course of time. Kohut also specifically defines healthy and unhealthy cases of Oedipal complexes and narcissism, while investigating the nature of analysis itself as treatment for pathologies. This in-depth examination of “the talking cure” explores the lesser studied phenomena of psychoanalysis, including when it is beneficial for analyses to be left unfinished, and the changing definition of “normal.” An important work for working psychoanalysts, this book is important not only for psychologists, but also for anyone interested in the complex inner workings of the human psyche.

Psychoanalyst, teacher, and scholar, Heinz Kohut was one of this century's most important intellectuals. A rebel, according to many mainstream psychoanalysts, Kohut challenged Freudian orthodoxy and the medical control of psychoanalysis in America. His success in treating narcissistic disorders and his highly influential book How Does Analysis Cure? established Kohut's Self Psychology as the strongest rival to traditional psychoanalysis today. The Curve of Life reveals Kohut's private and public life through a unique collection of lively and thoughtful correspondence with colleagues, public figures, family, and close friends. Over 300 never-before-published letters, drawn from Kohut's private files and from colleagues, cover Kohut's life from his native Austria in the 1930s until his death in 1981. Because many of his letters were so substantive, this rich collection clarifies Kohut's landmark published works. In letters to such diverse personalities as Anna Freud and Bruno Walter, Kohut meditated on some of the most intriguing psychoanalytic questions of the day—the nature of psychological cure, the relationship between doctor and patient, and the role of the Oedipus complex in psychoanalysis. The correspondence also reveals Kohut's lively interest in literature, music, history, and culture, as well as his deep and often contentious involvement in the politics of the psychoanalytic movement. Kohut discussed his theories in letters to August Aichhorn, Heinz Hartmann, the Surgeon General, and even Jacqueline Kennedy, and the responses, some published here for the first time, prompted him to explore his ideas from a variety of perspectives. A letter from Anna Freud provoked Kohut to respond this way: "What you had to say gave me great pleasure, and your approval was a welcome support amidst the inescapable insecurities under pressure to which we are all exposed. Strangely enough, it was not the discussion of scientific contributions and other statements that I had sent to you but the very last, parting sentence of your letter which gave me the most food for thought. You sent me your best wishes for the presidency of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and expressed the hope that '...this office permits opportunity for some revolutionary moves.'" The Curve of Life illuminates the evolution of Kohut's theory of the psychology of the self, and provides a rare glimpse into the institutional and intellectual history of psychoanalysis in the last half of this century. These letters will fascinate not only scholars in psychoanalysis, but also those in the humanities, social sciences, and even theology, as well as general readers curious about the private thoughts of a towering figure in intellectual life.

The proposal of Grace for the Injured Self is to help the reader to understand the significance of psychological injuries that we all may suffer. Even under the best circumstances in life, these injuries may threaten our self-cohesion and self-esteem. Cooper and Randall refer to the self psychology approach and perspective of Heinz Kohut -considered by many people as the most significant psychoanalyst since Sigmund Freud- as a way of healing these injuries. The book constantly stresses the empathic presence of another as a source of grace: the empathic responsiveness of others holds our selves together and helps us not to fall apart.

Collects interviews with survivors, bystanders, and emergency workers during the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, focusing on the different "zones of sadness" affected by the attack.

Intersubjective Self Psychology: A Primer offers a comprehensive overview of the theory of Intersubjective Self Psychology and its clinical applications. Readers will gain an in depth understanding of one of the most clinically relevant analytic theories of the past half-century, fully updated and informed by recent discoveries and developments in the field of Intersubjectivity Theory. Most importantly, the volume provides detailed chapters on the clinical treatment principles of Intersubjective Self Psychology and their application to a variety of clinical situations and diagnostic categories such as trauma, addiction, mourning, child therapy, couples treatment, sexuality, suicide and sever pathology. This useful clinical tool will support and inform everyday psychotherapeutic work. Retaining Kohut’s emphasis on the self and selfobject experience, the book conceptualizes the therapeutic situation as a bi-directional field of needed and dreaded selfobject experiences of both patient and analyst. Through a rigorous application of the ISP model, each chapter sheds light on the complex dynamic field within which self-experience and selfobject experience of patient and analyst/therapist unfold and are sustained. The ISP perspective allows the therapist to focus on the patient’s strengths, referred to as the Leading Edge, without neglecting work with the repetitive transferences, or Trailing Edge. This dual focus makes ISP a powerful agent for transformation and growth. Intersubjective Self Psychology provides a unified and comprehensive model of psychological life with specific, practical applications that are clinically informative and therapeutically powerful. The book represents a highly useful resource for psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists around the world.

This comprehensive, introductory text makes the concepts of self psychology accessible for students and clinicians. It begins with an overview of the development of Kohut's ideas, particularly those on narcissism and narcissistic development and explains the self object concept that is at the core of the self psychological vision of human experience. It also includes brief overviews, of the allied theoretical perspectives of intersubjectivity and motivational systems theory. Numerous clinical vignettes are furnished to illustrate theoretical concepts as well as one continuous case vignette that is woven throughout the book.