ABSTRACT

This second installment of “From the Kohut Archives” publishes a range of letters from Kohut to his close colleagues between 1966 and 1981. The selection also includes a letter expressing his concern for the care of his mother after she was admitted to a nursing home in 1970, two letters from Michael Franz Basch to Kohut, and a letter to Anita Eckstaedt that is relevant to the story of “The Two Analyses of Mr. Z.” These letters show Heinz Kohut’s ambivalence about his mother (as well as hints about how psychotic she became before she died in 1972), his deep involvement in the lives of his junior colleagues and followers, his irritation with Eckstaedt over the case of Mr. X, and some hints about his self-presentation to his less friendly colleagues in psychoanalysis.