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It is a treatise on narcissistic personality disorders, ... With Kohut's theory, the psychoanalytical treatment could now be extended to these patients as well.
The instincts fade away as Kohut embraces human beings rather than victims of drives,” writes Kohut's biographer Charles B. Strozier. What emerges is a practice in which the analyst is emotionally involved in the patient's life. The theory is “flexible, open-ended, mutual and empathic. Analysis makes possible the pure gold of psychotherapy ...
Kohut explained, in 1977, that in all he wrote on the psychology of the self, he purposely did not define the self. He explained his reasoning this way: "The self...is, like all reality...not knowable in its essence...We can describe the various cohesive forms in which the self appears, can demonstrate the several constituents that make up the self ... and explain their genesis and functions.
Kohut, Heinz: The Analysis of the Self: A Systematic Approach to the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Narcissistic Personality Disorders (1971). International Universities Press, New York. ISBN 0-8236-8002-9. Kohut, Heinz (1977). The Restoration of the Self. New York: International Universities Press. ISBN 0-8236-5810-4. Strozier, Charles B. (2001).
[1] [20] Kohut's research showed that if early narcissistic needs could be adequately met, the individual would move on to what he called a "mature form of positive self-esteem; self-confidence" or healthy narcissism. [21] In Kohut's tradition, the features of healthy narcissism are: Strong self-regard. Empathy for others and recognition of ...
Kohut extended Winnicott's work in his investigation of narcissism, [18] seeing narcissists as evolving a defensive armor around their damaged inner selves. [19] He considered it less pathological to identify with the damaged remnants of the self, than to achieve coherence through identification with an external personality at the cost of one's ...
To Kohut, idealization in childhood is a healthy mechanism. If the parents fail to provide appropriate opportunities for idealization ( healthy narcissism ) and mirroring (how to cope with reality), the child does not develop beyond a developmental stage in which they see themselves as grandiose but in which they also remain dependent on others ...
Kohut also saw beyond the negative and pathological aspects of narcissism, believing it is a component in the development of resilience, ideals and ambition once it has been transformed by life experiences or analysis [25] —though critics objected that his theory of how 'we become attached to ideals and values, instead of to our own archaic ...