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[[Ego-psychology]] was taken to the [[United States]] by the Austrian analysts who emigrated there in the late 1930s, and since the early 1950s it has been the dominant school of [[psychoanalysis]] not only in the [[United States]] but also in the whole of the [[IPA]].
This position of dominance has enabled [[ego-psychology ]] to present itself as the inheritor of Freudian [[Freud]]ian [[psychoanalysis ]] in its purist form, when in fact there are radical differences between some of its tenets and [[Freud]]'s work.
For much of his professional life, [[Lacan ]] disputed [[ego-psychology]]'s claim to be the true heir to the Freudian legacy, even though [[Lacan]]'s [[analyst]], [[Rudolph Loewenstein]], was one of [[ego-psychology]]'s founding fathers.
After [[Lacan ]] was expelled from the [[IPA ]] in 1953, he was free to voice his criticisms of [[ego- psychology ]] openly, and during the rest of his life he developed a sustained and powerful critique.
Much of Lacanian [[Lacan]]ian theory cannot be properly understood without reference to the ideas of [[ego-psychology ]] with which [[Lacan ]] contrasts it.
[[Lacan ]] challenged all the central concepts of [[ego-psychology]], such as the concepts of [[adaptation]] and the [[autonomous ego]].
His criticisms of ego-psychology are often intertwined with his criticisms of the [[IPA]] which was dominated by this particular school of thought.
[[Lacan]] presents both ego-psychology and the IPA as the 'antithesis' of true psychoanalysis.<ref>{{E, }} p.l16</ref>
[[Lacan]] argues that both were irremediably corrupted by the culture of the United States (see [[factor c]]).
[[Lacan]]'s powerful critique has meant that few people now accept uncritically the claims of [[ego-psychology ]] to identify itself as '"classical psychoanalysis'. == An important strand within post-Freudian psychoanalysis, derived mainly from Freud's second topography and Anna Freud's work on the ego and its defences. The principal theorists of ego-psychology are Heinz Hartmann, Rudolf Loewenstein and Ernst Kris. Ego-psychology holds that there exist withint he ego of the child the innaate elements of a conflict-free sphere that can become autonomous vis-a-vis both the superego and the id. The conflict-free sphere neutralizes the [[drive]] and harnesses them to the task of adaptation to the environment, adaptation being defined in terms of biological maturation and socialization. Treatment tends to be based on the establishment of a therapeutic alliance in which tthe patient identifies with the strong ego of the analyst. the developmental theory of ego-psychology ..... ego-psychology is condemend by lacan for reducing the distinguished practice ofpsychoanalysis to a "theology of free enterprise" and "a label suitable to the 'americna way of life.' (1974)
==See Also==
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:School]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Terms]]
