Where the empathy came from to psychotherapy: Carl Rogers' psychoanalytic predecessors and successors

The situation of empathy appearing and assertion in psychotherapy is analyzed from the historical point of view in the paper. The early psychoanalytic approaches of Sh. Ferentсi and O.Rank and their probable connection with C.Rogers views are presented. Some facts about H.Kohut and C.Rogers as founders of theories where the empathy is the core concept are first time mentioned in Russian psychology. Triple status of empathy in H.Kohut Self-psychology is analyzed in details: as the method of psychology, as psychoanalyst’s instrument and as the object of the universal personality need. Rogers’ and Kohut’s ideas development in modern experiental approaches and intersubjective psychoanalysis are viewed.