Having initially briefly reviewed and then compared and contrasted the contributions of Kernberg and Kohut to the theory and treatment of narcissistic problems, the attempt was then made to evaluate critically their merits and possible short-comings.

It was felt that in pushing back the frontiers of pathology to earlier and earlier developmental phases there has been an associated tendency to postulate 'essentially preverbal unconscious communication' between therapist and patient where empathy tends to minimize or replace free association and other secondary process communications as the analytic therapeutic tool.