You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The Annual of Psychoanalysis, a yearly volume edited by The Chicago Institute of Psychoanalysis, reflects the growing influence of Kohutian views. Although it may be a fortuitous assemblage of articles, more than half of this annual shows the impact of Kohut's theoretical formulations. It is indeed impressive to observe the range of Kohut's ideas. Not only has he transformed the views of adaptive and pathological narcissistic phenomena but, in addition, he has provided a way for describing the enfolding of particular kinds of narcissistic transferences, and for the observation and study of these phenomena. In this volume, one can see the potential for his insights in illuminating not only clinical data, but also anthropology, religion, psychohistory, and contemporary culture.
However, I think this group of papers also hints at the potential dangers that can develop when little attempt is made to integrate new insights within the larger frame of theory in psychoanalysis. There is a danger of insularity and parochialism that is at times reflected in some of these articles. Authors tend to limit their citations to Kohut, his followers, or to each other, and their references reflect this narrow range. Kohut's stress on empathic understanding has been elevated and is close to being enshrined as an all-powerful investigative tool. Gedo, for example, asserts that the condition of “introspection and empathy (Kohut, 1959)” is essentially all that is necessary for the establishment of the reliability and validity of psychoanalytic interventions. Further, he maintains that empathy is the major tool for evaluating “the variety of materials that may be available to a biographer” when writing a biography. (In a more recent publication Gedo has altered his view on empathy. See Gedo, Beyond Interpretation, IUP. .) This stance, in both instances, would seem somewhat limited, if scientific or biographical truth is an aim.
Further, citations are often used in lieu of clinical evidence s