ABSTRACT
In the United States, Heinz Kohut changed the focus of analysis from guilt to tragedy, from drive to the need for empathy and connection. His developmental model involved mirroring, idealizing, and twinning—all interpersonal events. He focused extensively on the dilemmas of narcissism and narcissistic rage, bringing a new depth of understanding to those character issues by writing that they were caused by environmental failures rather than too much innate aggression. He believed that the proper stance of the analyst is one of empathic immersion, placing him outside the Freudian, more confrontational tradition.
Kohut wrote eloquently of developmental needs and environment failures leading to the sense of falling apart, rage, and shame. He translated these developmental needs into varieties of transference needs.
There are many ongoing developments in this lineage. The intersubjective school added systems and ideas to empathy, creating a truly two-person model of psychoanalysis. Bernard Brandchaft emphasized “pathological accommodation,” which kills inner spontaneity and creative living. In hundreds of innovative studies, Daniel Stern documented that babies are interacting with others in various ways from the moment of birth, putting the self tradition on scientific footing. Beatrice Beebe’s research with split-screen video cameras and Donna Orange’s compassionate philosophical additions broaden and deepen modern self psychoanalysis.
