ABSTRACT
Stefan Bolognini (1997) has pointed out that empathy cannot be forced as an attitude, or employed as a method. It cannot arise cito, tuto, et incunde (quickly, safely, and agreeably). If so employed in psychotherapy, for example, empathy becomes restricted to fitting the patient's conscious expectations and needs. This may lead to the avoidance of painful truths about himself that the patient may be narcissistically resisting, and to the creation of an idealised dyadic situation, which then becomes held as a beacon of light in the darkness of a malignantly misunderstanding world. The more 'traditional' psychoanalytic stance runs against the above cultural trend and therein lies its value. At the level of clinical theory and practice the tension between deficit and conflict models is perhaps best illustrated by looking at the different approaches of Heinz Kohut and Otto Kernberg. There is absolutely no doubt that empathy is the core of any therapeutic work, and a prerequisite to any change.
