How Does Analysis Cure?

Abstract

The Austro-American psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut was one of foremost leaders in his field and developed school of self-psychology, which sets aside 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 theoretical framework for self-psychology and carefully lays out how self develops over course of time. Kohut also specifically defines mental health and mental illness in relation to Ocdipus complex and narcissism, while investigating nature of analysis itself as treatment and for pathologies. This in-depth examination of the talking cure explores lesser-studied phenomena of psychoanalysis, including when it is beneficial for analyses to be left unfinished, and changing definition of normal. An essential volume for working psychoanalysts, this book is important not only for psychologists, but also for anyone interested in complex inner workings of human psyche.