Two strangers come together to facilitate the therapeutic process. In stepping into a mysterious arena, the analysand and analyst meet in the psychoanalytic treatment room. What expectations does the analysand have of the analyst? What does the analyst hope will happen through treatment? How does the analyst create an emerging psychoanalytic treatment that facilitates healing for the analysand? Through the connection between analysand and analyst, the anaylsand hopefully forms a healthier, vital, and more coherent self. One must ask how the analysand comes to feel more coherent? What are the essential ingredients of a "cure?" In seeking to answer these questions, I have focused this paper on the discussion of empathy. The paper provides a self psychological historical analysis of the concept of empathy. Through turning to the work of Sigmund Freud, Heinz Kohut, Ernest Wolf, Howard Bacal, and Richard Geist, I strive to describe the concept of empathy and discuss how empathy plays a vital role in the psychoanalytic process. I argue that the self psychological psychoanalytic value of empathy has profound and altering effects for the analysand and analyst.