The Curve of Life: Correspondence of Heinz Kohut, 1923-81

Psychoanalyst, teacher and scholar, Heinz Kohut was one of this century's most important intellectuals. A rebel, according to many mainstream psychoanalysts, Kohut challenged Freudian orthodoxy and the medical control of psychoanalysis in America. His success in treating narcissistic disorders and his highly influential book "How Does Analysis Cure?" established Kohut's Self Psychology as the strongest rival to traditional psychoanalysis today. "The Curve of Life" reveals Kohut's private and public life through a collection of correspondence with colleagues, public figures, family and close friends. Over 300 never-before-published letters, drawn from Kohut's private files and from colleagues, cover Kohut's life from his native Austria in the 1930s until his death in 1981. Because many of his letters were so substantive, this collection clarifies Kohut's landmark published works. In letters to such diverse personalities as Anna Freud and Bruno Walter, Kohut meditated on some of the most intriguing psychoanalytic questions of the day - the nature of psychological cure, the relationship between doctor and patient, and the role of the Oedipus complex in psychoanalysis. The correspondence also reveals Kohut's interest in literature, music, history and culture, as well as his deep and often contentious involvement in the politics of the psychoanalytic movement. Kohut discussed his theories in letters to August Aichhorn, Heinz Hartmann, the Surgeon General and even Jacqueline Kennedy, and the responses, some published here for the first time, prompted him to explore his ideas from a variety of perspectives. "The Curve of Life" illuminates the evolution of Kohut's theory of the psychology of the self, and provides a rare glimpse into the institutional and intellectual history of psychoanalysis in the last half of this century. These letters should be of interest not only to scholars in psychoanalysis, but also to those in the humanities, social sciences, and even theology, as well as to general readers.

About the Author :
Heinz Kohut (1913-81) was professorial lecturer in psychiatry at the University of Chicago and president of the American Psychoanalytic Association. He is the author of many books, including How Does Analysis Cure? and The Curve of Life, both published by the University of Chicago Press. H. G. Cocks is associate professor of history at Nottingham University, UK. He is the author of Nameless Offences: Homosexual Desire in Nineteenth-Century England and Classified and coeditor of The Modern History of Sexuality.