August Aichhorn

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Notes

Kohut (1971) described the same phenomena, but conceptualized the patient’s attitude toward the therapist not as a product of overflowing narcissistic libido, but as resulting from the patient’s need for the therapist’s enthusiasm to compensate for the patient’s inadequate experience of a vigorous coherent self.

Promoting unrealistic transferences in the manner that Aichhorn describes should be differentiated from allowing transferences to emerge in the analytic setting by avoiding premature interpretations that may impede their clear manifestation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Isaac R. Galatzer-Levy

Isaac R. Galatzer-Levy, Department of Clinical Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. Robert M. Galatzer-Levy, Institute for Psychoanalysis, Chicago; Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago.