The author of this text argues that clinical material is approached with certain values and theoretical points of view that inform and organize that clinical material. He looks at the role of empathy in analytic method, and the place of the "self" in the analyst's explanatory strategies.

I. Theory  1. The Three Theories of Psychoanalysis  2. One Theory or More?  3. Translation between Psychoanalytic Theories  4. The Tension between Realism and Relativism in Psychoanalysis  II. Empathy  5. Self Psychology and External Reality  6. Compassion, Empathy, and Understanding  7. Experience: Near, Distant, and Absent  8. On the Scientific Study of Empathy  9. The Unempathic Child  III. Character  10. The Structure of the Self  11. On the Nature of the Misfit  12. The Wishy-Washy Personality  IV. Clinical Papers  13. Comments on Rules and Psychotherapy  14. Psychoanalysis and Negotiation  15. Selfobjects and Self-Control  16. Some Notes on the Mirror  17. The Place of Apology in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy  18. Post-Termination