We will never know how and why a person reaches his vocation as a psychoanalyst, neither concerning ourselves nor certainly concerning others. And of course August Eichorn, who, unlike many psychoanalysts that were corrupted with the foul current, embodied for Kohut psychoanalysis at its best, that for which he himself would become a voice that continues its future.
In he married Elizabeth Betty Meier, whom he met at the Chicago psychoanalytic institute. Elizabeth, the daughter of an American family of German descent, studied social work, and in came to psychoanalytic Vienna to complete and deepen her training and remained there until close to the outbreak of the war.
At the time of her studies at the psychoanalytic institute, in courses that were earmarked for social workers, she also attended a seminar given by Eichorn, and although she had not met Kohut in Vienna, the two felt that a hidden string attaches them to each other and gives their human meeting as a couple added meaning. In the Kohuts gave birth to their only son, Thomas. Fatherhood had for Kohut a critical significance, and he tried being for him the father whom he had missed and the mentors whom he had had as well; as such his presence for Thomas was a mixture of involved and unreserved fatherhood with the intentional and constant introduction of matters of culture, art and science.
He was appointed training analyst as early as , his writings merited an increasing appreciation and his standing as a gifted teacher and as an exciting identification figure for the young candidates at the institute increasingly expanded. Not any less natural than that was the growing international recognition of his unique position, which bore his being chosen the vice president of the International Psychoanalytic Association IPA in The gradual unfolding of his expanding thinking, beginning with the paper on the forms and transformations of narcissism, is revealed in its full radical vision, and as great as was the enthrallment with it in broad circles so was the intensity of the severe resistances which it accumulated, which more than once became substituted with conspiring animosity toward Kohut the man.
He was therefore forced in to remove his candidacy for presidency of the IPA, and in his analytic home in Chicago he withdrew from positions of administrative leadership as well.
And worst of all, at this point in time Kohut also begins his journey to his death when in the diagnosis of lymphoma in his body, which would gradually consume his life. And as for Kohut himself: Alongside the great satisfaction which he sated from the events of the philosophical and material becoming of self psychology, the last decade of his life was burdened with illness, ongoing pain and philosophical preparation for the end of the road.
Aside from the cancer in Kohut underwent coronary bypass surgery which became complicated and dragged into an extended rehabilitation period, and other systems in his body increasingly receded as well. As one who knew that tragedy is not compulsory even facing death, as long as man lives his nuclear self before he dies, and in going to his end he is paneled by a human selfobject surrounding, Kohut ended his complete life cycle in great serenity.
A half a year before his death, on March 22 and April 12 , Kohut conversed with a young theologist, Robert L. In one of the two interviews Kohut presented to Randall the way in which his ideas connect with theological contemplations on death.
There is a seed, there is a flowering, there is wilting, there is a death and the next generation of roses takes over. To me this is an uplifting thought, not a discouraging thought.
In , he had by-pass surgery from which there were some complications and a lengthy recovery. In the next couple of years he also developed inner ear troubles and once had pneumonia.
By he was in a state of general decline and died that fall on October 8. But despite his illnesses, Kohut continued to work. By the time of his death his last book, How Does Analysis Cure? A volume of some new and republished essays appeared in , edited by Charles B. Recent feminist writing of a psychological bent, as well, has found in Kohut a perspective on the self that avoids the insidious sexism in most of psychoanalysis.
One can also say that much of the public discourse in a society obsessed with psychological meanings has been profoundly influenced by Kohut. The sense we have in the culture of dissociation, for example, from multiple personalities to the ravages of trauma in sexual abuse and war, owes some of its deeper meaning to his work. Many had flailed at the stout walls of classical psychoanalysis and ego psychology.
It took someone from the inside to think through the project from the ground up, discard the debris but recover what remained valuable in its clinical insights. Kohut may well have saved psychoanalysis from itself. That project connected with larger themes. Kohut lived out in his life and formulated in his work the core issues of contemporary America. He touched the pulse. If a person is narcissistic, it will allow him to suppress feelings of low self-esteem.
By talking highly of himself, the person can eliminate his sense of worthlessness. Kohut expanded on his theory during the s, a time in which aggressive individuality, overindulgence, greed, and restlessness left many people feeling empty, fragile, and fragmented.
Perhaps because of its positive, open, and empathic stance on human nature as a whole as well as the individual, self psychology is considered one of the "four psychologies" the others being drive theory, ego psychology, and object relations ; that is, one of the primary theories on which modern dynamic therapists and theorists rely. According to biographer Charles Strozier, "Kohut Also according to Strozier, Kohut's book The Analysis of the Self: A Systematic Analysis of the Treatment of the Narcissistic Personality Disorders [3] "had a significant impact on the field by extending Freud's theory of narcissism and introducing what Kohut called the 'selfobject transferences' of mirroring and idealization.
They also need to have their self-worth reflected back "mirrored" by empathic and caregiving others. These experiences allow them to thereby learn the self-soothing and other skills that are necessary for the development of a healthy cohesive, vigorous sense of self. For example, therapists become the idealized parent and through transference the patient begins to get the things he has missed. The patient also has the opportunity to reflect on how early the troubling relationship led to personality problems.
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