Heinz Kohut: The Making of a Psychoanalyst (Hardcover)

by Charles B. Strozier (Author) "On May 3, 1913, Heinz Kohut was born to Felix and Else Kohut in old Austria's great city of Vienna..." (more)
Key Phrases: self psychology conference, self psychology movement, cosmic narcissism, Anna Freud, The Analysis of the Self, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Developments in psychoanalysis are, appropriately, often the products of half-discovered impulses and longings, so it's fitting that Kohut's The Analysis of the Self, which essentially invented and delineated relational psychoanalysis, was the product of many conflicting influences. This new, definitive biography not only records Kohut's illustrious career, but gives fresh insights and reflections upon his work. Born into a well-to-do Jewish family in Vienna in 1913, Kohut grew up with an intrusive mother, had an affair with his male tutor when he was 12, structured his sexual life around masochistic fantasies and studied to be a physician until he fled Austria in 1939 and moved to the U.S. Here, he became well known as a psychiatrist, and then as a psychoanalyst, reaching full bloom in 1971 with the publication of The Analysis of the Self. Strozier (Apocalypse: On the Psychology of Fundamentalism in America) has produced a sympathetic narrative of Kohut's life and work, but avoids the pitfalls of hagiography. He addresses Kohut's sexual ambivalence (including a close, lifelong friendship with conductor Robert Wadsworth) and his tormented relationship with his Jewishness, which ran so deep that Kohut was known to cause scenes in kosher restaurants by insisting on being served a ham sandwich and a glass of milk. Strozier navigates this complicated material with skill and sensitivity, never reducing his complex subject to a case study, in a work that will appeal to a small but dedicated audience.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Historian and psychoanalyst Strozier (Lincoln's Quest for Union) knew Chicago analyst Heinz Kohut (1913-81) at the end of his life and is carrying on his work. One of the most important American analysts, Kohut became the leader of a less authoritarian and more compassionate school of psychoanalysis known as self-psychology, now a major force in humanizing Freudian theory and practice. The author recounts the gripping, moving, and instructive story of this driven, creative, cultured intellectual, who was much respected as a teacher and therapist but disliked for his arrogance. Healing, music, courage, religion, art, charisma, rage, and death are some of the topics covered in this splendid biography. Too important to leave to professionals, this accessible work is highly recommended for all libraries.DE. James Lieberman, George Washington Univ. Sch. of Medicine, Washington, DC
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 495 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux; 1st edition (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374168806
• ISBN-13: 978-0374168803
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #887,556 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a deep drink from an unusual well., August 21, 2001

By	Rebecca Brown "rebeccasreads" (Clallam Bay, WA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

A biography of Heinz Kohut who was at the center of the 20th century American psychoanalytic movement. After the Nazis took over Vienna he fled to Chicago, where he spent the rest of his life & is now remembered as the founder of "self psychology."

That said: you have got to have an appetite for exploration into the deep recesses of our psychology & the ways we live our lives.

This biography will appeal to those who have lived through the same era as Heinz Kohut & who have encountered the less authoritarian & more compassionate school of psychoanalysis now known as self-psychology which made major changes in reformatting the revered Freudian theory & practice.

A deep drink from an unusual well - well-written, if somewhat dense in places. Well worth it, however, if you are at all interested in the signs of intelligent life during America's post WWII years which led up to the human potential movement.

I'm amazed that I read it because my mind was boggled by the subject & the author! What did I learn? Zounds - it'll take me years to process a fraction of what has been brought to the surface!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 180 N. Michigan Avenue redux, May 23, 2007

By	fefl "fefl" (Miami, Florida USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heinz Kohut: The Making of a Psychoanalyst (Paperback)

For those who knew in vivo many of the characters forming the cast of this epic, reading the book would have an illusory experience of deja vu.

Kohut and many of the members of the Institute for Psychoanalysis in Chicago had the courage to launch a new system that shook the freudian orthodoxy in its very foundations --- while in so doing managing to enrich this, until then, fading system.

I highly recommend this biography as a fair and just assessment of the man (and of the men and women that formed his inner circle) and of his grasp on narcissim and empathy.

Kudos to Strozier!