Empathy in Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice

Abstract

With the exception of Self Psychology, empathy has not been a major theoretical concept in psychoanalysis. Freud's (1921) definition of empathy implies it is a necessary condition for an analytic process to develop (p. 110, n. 2). Most psychoanalytic theories have side-stepped this issue by including empathy under various assumed names. We have discussed some of these in the theories of a number of psychoanalysts within the British Psychoanalytical Society. We have illustrated some of these theoretical issues with a clinical example.