ABSTRACT
What role does history play in our psychological development and how do we understand its determining impact? In what way does our psychology shape the historical, political, and social contexts in which we live? These are the kinds of questions and concerns that have occupied Thomas Kohut throughout his career as a historian and psychoanalyst by training. This concluding chapter begins with a discussion of Kohut’s understanding of the connections between history and psychoanalysis and ends with an extended dialogue between us. I start by considering Kohut’s approach to psychohistory and its relation to the psychoanalytic thinking and practice. I then examine Kohut’s emphasis on the importance of empathy for understanding the German generation’s complicity in the Holocaust. The chapter concludes with Kohut’s personal reflections on his work and life at the intersection of history and psychoanalysis.
