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[[Ego-psychology]] is a [[school]] of [[Sigmund Freud|post-Freudian]] [[psychoanalysis]], derived from [[psychology|child psychology]], [[Freud]]'s [[topology|second topography]] and [[Anna Freud]]'s work on the [[ego]] and its [[defence]]s.
[[Anna Freud]]'s book ''[[The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence]]'' (1936) was one of the first works to focus almost entirely on the [[ego]].
[[Heinz Hartmann]] argued that the healthy ego includes a sphere of autonomous ego functions that are independent of mental conflict. According to [[Hartmann]], psychoanalytic treatment aims to expand the conflict-free sphere of ego functioning. By doing so, [[Hartmann]] believed, [[psychoanalysis]] facilitates [[adaptation]], that is, more effective mutual regulation of [[ego]] and [[environment]]. [[Treatment]] tends to be based on the establishment of a therapeutic alliance in which the [[patient]] [[identifies]] with the strong [[ego]] of the [[analyst]].
[[Ego-psychology]] holds that the [[ego]] has [[autonomous ego|autonomous energy and functions independently]].