Introduction

As a candidate at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, I participated in a course on the theory of Self Psychology taught by Paul Tolpin and Ernest Wolf. Heinz Kohut attended one class session as a guest lecturer. I remember his lament that although he had taken great pains to be as clear as possible in all his writings, it seemed people still misunderstood what he said. He acknowledged that unconscious motivations might have fueled some of the misunderstandings, but more importantly, it seemed to him that people no longer read seriously. His words stayed with me: 'People simply do not read what I have written!'