Heinz Kohut

Biography

Heinz Kohut was a pioneering psychoanalyst who fundamentally transformed the field through his development of Self Psychology. Born in Vienna in 1913, he fled Nazi persecution and established himself as a leading figure in American psychoanalysis, serving as a training analyst and theorist at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis.

Kohut's revolutionary concepts of empathy, narcissism, and the selfobject relationship reshaped psychoanalytic theory and practice. His work emphasized the importance of understanding patients through their subjective experience and challenged traditional Freudian approaches. He remained an influential voice in psychoanalysis until his death in 1981, leaving a lasting legacy that continues to influence therapeutic practice worldwide.