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The departure of key historical figures from center stage of the psychoanalytic movement and the formation of a new stratum of psychoanalysts, whose contribution accumulates in a diffusion of scientific and clinical creativity rather than revolves around single gigantic discoveries, have made the recent years a transitional period in the development of psychoanalysis. During this period, The main effort has been to deepen and further consolidate established insights and to test the possibility of integrating the different trends and viewpoints that have evolved during psychoanalysis's hundred years of existence.
At the same time, it seems to me that within this quiet crystallization, processes are immanent that will lead to a breakthrough in the future development of psychoanalysis as a science and as a unique therapeutic method. The source for such a potential impetus is to be found, I believe, in the theory of self psychology as developed by Kohut. Self psychology, which focuses on the unique human sphere of narcissism, touches on the innermost core of psychoanalysis. It challenges its current boundaries and outlines possibilities of expanding those boundaries toward totally new frontiers. And this is true, both on the philosophical level of psychoanalytic theory as a science, and on the clinical level of psychoanalysis as a method of treating human suffering.
Psychoanalysis attempted to establish its standing as a science by attaching itself to the positivistic sciences while using biological and