ABSTRACT
Freud believes that empathy can be a means of extending our introspection so that we may apprehend psychological states in others that are different from our own. Heinz Kohut stressed that the empathic-introspective mode of observation was characteristic of psychoanalysis, and that the consistent employment of an empathic-introspective stance influences the broad kinds of analytic theory. Although Kohut believed empathic responsiveness might itself have some limited therapeutic potential through the salutary effects of feeling understood incidental to analytic discovery, he repeatedly insisted that the primary therapeutic effect of analysis accrued from the total exploratory process, leading to structural change and growth primarily via transmuting internalizations. There are many rich examples in the literature of empathic understanding leading to the formulation of empathic interpretations in various types of clinical situations. Beyond the matter of substantial objections to the emphasis on empathy as an analytic instrument, there remains the issue of emotional barriers within the analyst himself to adopting an empathic posture.
