A Comparison of the Notions of Self in the Philosophy of Heidegger and the Psychoanalytic Self Psychology of Kohut

Heinz Kohut presented some startling and clinically significant innovations in the field of psychoanalysis, and he proposed a major shift in the methodological foundation of that discipline. Martin Heidegger advocated a profound reorientation of philosophical thinking on the European continent and hoped to step away entirely from the Western metaphysical and scientific tradition. Both of these extremely controversial thinkers are clearly very important, and in previous publications I (Chessick, 1980a, 1983, 1985a, 1986) have outlined their basic ideas, along with those of Nietzsche and Freud, the most significant immediate predecessors of Heidegger and Kohut, respectively. In this paper I will compare and contrast the crucial notion of the “self” in Kohut with that of Heidegger. An understanding of how these authors conceive of and struggle with their evolving concepts of the self is central to comprehending their difficult