The Private Tutor

Heinz Kohut, an important American psychoanalyst, reports on the relationship with his private tutor that began when he was 11 years old.

Taken from the collection Positive Memories, compiled by T. Rivas.


Filip Schuster’s Lexikon der Pädophilie-Irrtürmer mentioned the case of Heinz Kohut (1913 – 1981), an influential American psychoanalyst.

Kohut grew up in Vienna in the 1920s. By the time he was 10, his parents' relationship with each other was deteriorating, and young Heinz found himself to be quite lonely. At the age of 11, he got a private tutor by the name of Ernst Morawetz, who probably was in his early twenties. They developed a warm and deep friendship, which also included many erotic aspects, such as kisses, touching and oral sex.

The case is also covered by Bruce Rind, who states:

“He later described those years with his tutor as extremely happy ones, perhaps the happiest in his life. He idealized his tutor, who was a ‘spiritual leader,’ able to share his ‘almost religious’ love for nature, as well as teach him about literature, art and music”. […]

The relationship became sexualized, at first mainly kissing and hugging, then naked closeness, then tender mutual fondling, and mutual oral sex. […]

Kohut felt the sexualization was incidental and meant little to his own sexual identity—what was of over-riding importance was the emotional connection […]

As Kohut later put it:
”I had this private tutor, who was a very important person in my life. He would take me to museums and swimming and concerts and we had endless intellectual conversations and played complicated intellectual games and played chess together. I was an only child. So it was in some ways psychologically life-saving for me. I was very fond of the fellow.”

See: Bruce Rind (2003): An Elaboration on Causation and Positive Cases in Child Sexual Abuse. In: Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, Band 10, Heft 3, S. 352-357, September 2003. [Summary is here]

Both Schuster and Rind mention the following source:

Charles B. Strozier (2001). Heinz Kohut. The Making of a Psychoanalyst, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.