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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.
It is based on an elaboration of [[Freud]]'s [[structure|structural model]] of the [[mind]], which focusing focuses almost entirely on the importance (of the function) of the [[ego]] in mediating between the conflicting [[demand]]s of the [[instinctual]] [[id]], the [[moralistic]] [[superego]] and [[external]] [[reality]]. The principal theorists of [[ego-psychology]] are Heinz Hartmann, Rudolf Loewenstein [[Heinz Hartmann]], a theorist of [[ego-psychology]] 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]]. The principal theorists of [[ego-psychology]] are Heinz Hartmann, Rudolf Loewenstein and Ernst Kris; its main journal is the American-based ''Psychoanalytic Study of the Child'', published since 1945. [[Lacan]]'s [[analyst]], [[Rudolph Loewenstein]], was one of [[ego-psychology]]'s founding fathers. ==History of Ego-Psychology== and the trend became firmly established in [[Heinz Hartmann]]'s ''[[Ego Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation]]'' (1939), which is now regarded as the foundational text of [[ego-psychology]]. [[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 [[Freud]]ian [[psychoanalysis]] in its purist form, when in fact there are radical differences between some of its tenets and [[Freud]]'s work. The dominance ==Jacques Lacan's Criticism== [[Lacan]]'s
[[Heinz Hartmann]]'s ''[[Ego Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation]]'' (1939) is regarded as the foundational text of [[ego-psychology]]. [[Hartmann]] was convinced that the innate elements of a "conflict-free" sphere allow the [[ego]] to function autonomously and independently 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]].
[[Lacan]]'s [[analyst]], [[Rudolph Loewenstein]], was one of [[ego-psychology]]'s founding fathers.
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 [[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
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.
