Empathy through the Lens

By Parisa Shahrokhifard

This book undertakes a comprehensive examination of empathy as conceived within two major psychoanalytic traditions: classical psychoanalysis, as articulated by Sigmund Freud and his immediate successors, and self-psychology, as developed by Heinz Kohut and his collaborators.The central argument advanced in these pages is that the shift from classical psychoanalysis to self-psychology represents not merely a refinement of clinical technique but a fundamental reorientation in how the psychoanalytic enterprise understands the nature of human subjectivity, psychopathology, and therapeutic action. Where classical analysis positioned empathy primarily as an epistemological tool self-psychology elevated empathy to a central therapeutic agent, conceptualizing psychopathology itself as arising from failures in empathic attunement and the therapeutic relationship as a vehicle for repairing these developmental deficits.The book also explores the contributions of S ndor Ferenczi, whose pioneering work on clinical empathy anticipated many of the insights later developed within self-psychology, yet remained marginalized within mainstream psychoanalysis for decades.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 6630415302
• ISBN13: 9786630415308
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: Scholars' Press
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"