The curve of life

by Heinz Kohut

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 unique collection of lively and thoughtful 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 Chicago in 1981. Because many of his letters were so substantive, this rich collection clarifies Kohut's landmark published works. In letters to such personalities as Anna Freud and Heinz Hartmann,