At a time when I was quite skeptical about self psychology I had my first encounter with Paul Ornstein. Subtle and quietly passionate in his approach, Paul seemed to encompass the complexity of the whole therapeutic process in his unwavering empathic gesture. I experienced something quite viscerally during his talk: a rhythm, an almost uncanny strength in Paul’s particular way of evoking the paradoxical, complex-simplicity embodied in that form of human connection. Twenty-five years later and much elaborated, that essential core endures.