New Directions

Abstract

The most recent and relevant ideas to emerge in psychoanalysis have been those of Heinz Kohut (1913–1981). Unlike cult figures such as Erikson who left mainstream psychoanalysis for the university, Kohut proudly bore the title “Mr. Psychoanalysis.” From the late 1940s until the mid-1960s, he faithfully and diligently (and rather quietly) kept the psychoanalytic flame alive within the tight world of psychoanalytic orthodoxy, serving on numerous committees for the Chicago Institute (where he was on the faculty) and for the American Psychoanalytic Association. In the mid-1960s and throughout the 1970s, Kohut published a series of papers and books that challenged many stale ideas in psychoanalysis and offered alternative ways of thinking about human behavior developmentally and in depth.¹ His goal was to redefine psychoanalysis and revitalize it, not to break free from it as so many others who seriously challenge the theory have done. In time Kohut was to call his work the psychoanalytic psychology of the self.