Heinz Kohut was born in Vienna, Austria on May 3, 1913. He was homeschooled until 1924, when he entered public school at the age of eleven. He learned to speak French and Greek and studied European literature. He began his secondary education at the University of Vienna. During the six years he attended the university, Kohut also studied in Paris on an internship. He graduated with a degree in psychoanalysis and began practicing in 1938. Because he was Jewish, Kohut was forced to flee Austria and eventually moved to Boston and then later Chicago, where he joined the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis.
Contribution to Psychology
After World War II, Kohut diverged from his original Freudian theories on psychoanalysis and began to develop a view of the self as three separate identities which he termed the tripartite. Kohut’s theory suggests that the three states of self became fully developed when self-worth was achieved through relationships forged with other people. This self-psychology focused on the influence of external relationships rather than on the internal relationships, desires, and motivations. Kohut believed that narcissism was a manifestation of low self-worth and that in order to eradicate narcissistic behavior a person had to increase their sense of value.
During the 1970’s, Kohut’s theory of self-psychology gained rapid popularity. Many people who struggled with guilt resulting from material indulgence and self-serving behaviors saw self-psychology as a more positive and understanding approach to therapy than traditional psychoanalysis. Because of its accepting approach, self-psychology has become one of the foundations of modern psychology, along with object relations, ego psychology, and the theory of drive and motivation.
Kohut’s theories were presented in his publication The Analysis of the Self: A Systematic Analysis of the Treatment of the Narcissistic Personality Disorders. The book expanded earlier narcissistic theories and introduced self-object transferences as the process by which children developed their own sense of self-worth. Kohut believed that by idealizing and mirroring the competence they viewed in others, children could begin to understand their own identities. The process also provided clients with the opportunity to recognize maladaptive coping strategies and behaviors in others so that they could avoid engaging in similar behaviors. Kohut believed that this process of mirroring and idealizing continued through childhood and into adulthood and was a technique by which individuals continually developed their own sense of value and influenced their self-esteem. These relationships formed the basis of a person’s psychological identity and allowed individuals to learn responses and behaviors that they may not have been taught in early childhood.
Last Update: 04-05-2012