[[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.
The work Theorists of [[ego-psychology]] expands elaborate on [[Freud]]'s [[structure|structural model]] of the [[mind]], by focusing almost entirely on the importance of the function of [[ego]] in mediating between the conflicting [[demand]]s of the [[instinctual]] [[id]], the [[moralistic]] [[superego]] and [[external]] [[reality]].
[[Heinz Hartmann]], a theorist of [[ego-psychology]]
After Freud, a number of prominent psychoanalytic theorists began to elaborate on
It accepts , but is specifically concerned with the role of the [[ego]] in mediating between the conflicting [[demand]]s of the [[instinctual]] [[id]], the [[moralistic]] [[superego]] and [[external]] [[reality]].
[[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.
