Today I have decided to blog about Austrian-born American psychoanalyst, most known for his development of Self Psychology an influential school of thought that lies within the psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory. Kohut became an important member of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis when he settled in America after leaving Europe. Kohut was a big proponent of the traditional psychoanalysis view that was most popular in the U.S., which is why he jokingly called himself Mr. Psychoanalysis. Kohut at first tried to remain devoted to the traditional analytic viewpoint that he once became connected to, but Kohut later turned away from Freud's structural theory of the id, ego and superego and Kohut decided to develop his idea related to what he called the tripartite (three-part) self. Kohut believed that this three part self can only develop when the needs of one's "self states", including one's sense of worth and well-being, are met in relationships with others. With difference to traditional psychoanalysis that focuses around drives, internal conflicts, and fantasies, Self Psychology thus placed a great deal of emphasis on the vicissitudes of relationships. Kohut showed his interest in how we develop our "sense of self" using narcissism as a model. So Kohut believed if a individual is narcissistic it will allow him to suppress feelings of low self esteem and by talking highly of himself a person can eliminate his sense of worthlessness. Kohut widened his theory during the 1970's and 1980's, a time which aggressive individuality, overindulgence, greed and restlessness left may feeling empty, fragile and fragmented. Self Psychology is considered to be one of the "four psychologies" that modern therapists and theorists rely on and the others are drive theory, ego psychology and object relations. According to biographer Strozier, Kohuts book, "The Analysis of the Self: A Systematic Analysis of the Treatment of the Narcissistic Personality Disorders" helped extend Freud's theory of narcissism where Kohut introduces self-object transference's' of mirroring and idealization; and in other words "children need to idealize and emotionally "sink into" and identify with the idealized competence of admired figures." "They also need to have their self-worth reflected back ("mirrored") by empathic and care giving others." These types of experiences enable them to thereby understand self-soothing and other skills that are vital for the development of a healthy (cohesive, vigorous) sense of self. An example of this process would be, " a therapist becomes the idealized parent and through transference the patient begins to get the things he has missed and the patient also has the opportunity to reflect on how early the troubling relationship led to personality problems." Kohut believed narcissism comes about from poor attachment at an early age and Freud also thought that narcissism hides low self esteem and that therapy will re-parent an individual through transference so to begin to get the things that were missed. Later Kohut added a third major self object theme called the alter-ego twinship, which is about being part of a larger human identification with others. Though dynamic theory tends to place emphasis on childhood development, Kohut believed that the need for such self-object relationships will not discontinue at childhood but be continuous throughout the states of a person's life. So it seems apparent to me Kohut was brilliant in the field of psychology and that his work helped influence a whole lot and the overall structure of some of Freud's theory.