Discussion of Petri Meronen's paper, "The Return of Narcissism: Heinz Kohut in the Context of the History of Ideas"

Abstract

Kohut's major contribution to psychoanalysis was in his systematizing a clinical approach to disorders of the self. Kohut's theoretical innovations, however, are often misunderstood for a variety of reasons, as evidenced in Dr. Meronen's paper, ''The Return of Narcissism: Heinz Kohut in Historical Context''. Through redressing some of Dr. Meronen's misunderstandings of self psychological theory and his subsequent conclusions, I attempt to clarify in this discussion Kohut's sweeping technical innovations and the theory from which they are derived, all of which are reflective of Kohut's fundamentally personal vision of the essential nature of man.