Empathy is a multi-layered process. Kindness and caring are important, but it is the therapist who facilitates introspection that moves the relationship to an even deeper level. However, and ultimately, it is accurate interpretation by the clinician and accompanying insight on the part of the patient that reflects the deepest form of empathic connection. For Kohut, truly knowing someone and providing them the opportunity to know themselves is the foundation of insight, behavior change and self-integration. Clinicians watching Kohut’s parting gift, so to speak, will take away a greater sense of appreciation of the limits and potential of therapeutic empathy.
Length of video: 0:41:28
English subtitles available
Group ISBN-10 #: 1-60124-582-3
Group ISBN-13 #: 978-1-60124-582-3
Heinz Kohut, MD, was an American psychoanalyst who departed from the traditional Freudian psychoanalytic focus on internal drives in favor of an emphasis on relationship. Teaching and studying at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis and his leadership in the neo-analytic movement in the U.S. and abroad, along with his 1971 “The Analysis of the Self” and subsequent writings, established him as the founder of the applied discipline of Self Psychology and the therapeutic modality of Object Relations Therapy. His lasting impact is reflected in the study of empathy, personality disorder and the influence of early relationships on the development of self and interpersonal ties.