ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an account of the various points of view which have come to be recognized as significant steps forward in the ongoing field of psychoanalytic research. It presents several authors from various schools of psychoanalytic thought in chronological order. Their work extends that of S. Freud, enriching it with new theories and new ways of thinking of the process, and in particular in its relations to objects. One of Donald W. Winnicott’s major contributions to psychoanalytic work is in his article “Hate in the countertransference”, where he argues that the analyst, in his emotional response to the patient’s transference, should not merely put up with the hatred attributed to him, but also recognize his own hatred. Heinz Kohut had a background in ego psychology, the dominant approach in the 1960s, and in reaction against it he sought initially to put forward a psychoanalytic theory rid of categories, and he defined empathy as being central element in psychoanalytic technique.
