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{{Topp}}[[psychologie ]] du moi{{Bottom}}

[[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 focuses almost entirely on the function of the [[ego]] in mediating between the conflicting [[demand]]s of the [[instinctual]] [[id]], the [[moralistic]] [[superego]] and [[external]] [[reality]].

[[Ego Psychology|Ego psychology ]] developed in the United States in the years following the Second [[World ]] War and focused on ways of strengthening the defence mechanisms of the [[conscious ]] mind rather than the [[unconscious ]] motivation of our actions, as in classical psychoanalysis.

Rudolph [[Loewenstein]], Lacan's [[training ]] analyst, had been one of the founding fathers of [[Ego Psychology|Ego psychology]], having fled [[Nazi ]] [[persecution ]] in the 1940s.

Founded by European immigrants, this [[school]] of psychoanalysis overemphasized [[adaptation|adjustment]] and [[adaptation]] of the [[individual ]] to existing [[social ]] [[conditions]]. In the view of the American [[analysts ]] the [[ego]] is to be protected, the job of analysis is to reinforce the [[ego]] against the [[demand]]s of the [[instinctual]] [[id]], the [[moralistic]] [[superego]] and [[external]] [[reality]]. [[ego-psychology|Ego-psychologists]], like [[Heinz Hartmann]], [[Ernst Kris]] and [[Rudolph Loewenstein]], asserted that the [[ego]] had an aspect that was not tied up with the individual's [[neurosis|neurotic]] conflicts. There was a [[conflict]]-free zone (the "[[autonomous ego]]"), which seemed free to act and choose, independent of constraints.

In their view the [[analyst]]'s [[role ]] was to become an ally of the 'healthy' [[ego]] forces in their [[struggle ]] to dominate [[instinct]]s and [[drive]]s. It was said that the [[patient]], in [[order ]] to strengthen his or her "[[autonomous ego]]", should [[identify ]] with the [[ego]] of the [[psychoanalyst]]. Hence it was the [[analyst]]'s job to develop a powerful [[ego]].<!-- [[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]]. -->

[[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.

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 [[Lacan]]ian [[theory ]] cannot be properly [[understood ]] without reference to the [[ideas ]] of [[ego-psychology]] with which [[Lacan]] contrasts it. --><!-- 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." -->

[[Lacan]] attacks this position with many arguments. First, he criticizes the [[ego-psychology|ego-psychologist]]'s [[concept ]] of a "healthy part" of the [[ego]]. How, asks Lacan, can they [[know ]] which "part" is "healthy"? [[Lacan]] challenged all the central [[concepts ]] of [[ego-psychology]], such as the concepts of [[adaptation]] and the [[autonomous ego]]. Does this not assume that the [[purpose ]] of [[analysis]] is achieved by an [[identification]] with the [[analyst]]'s [[ego]]? Is the [[goal]] of [[psychoanalysis]] to bring the [[patient]] to see the world as the [[analyst]] sees it? [[Lacan]] traces most of [[ego-psychology]]'s problems and contradictions to the [[idea ]] that there is an "[[objective]]", "[[knowledge|knowable]]" [[reality]].

For [[Lacan]], the [[ego]] is the [[enemy]]. The origin of the [[ego]] is in the [[mirror phase]]. The [[mirror]], held by the [[mother]], proffers the developmentally half-formed and muscularly uncontrolled [[child ]] its first idea of itself as a [[stable ]] [[unified ]] [[appearance]]. The [[ego]] is constituted by "[[alienating ]] [[identification]]s". [[Lacan]]'s own conception of the [[ego]] suggests that it must be profoundly distrusted because it is unable to discriminate the [[subject]]'s own [[desire]]s from the [[desire]]s of [[others]].

According to Lacan, the [[ego]] is not [[autonomous ego|autonomous]], but subordinated and [[alienation|alienated]] to the people and [[image]]s with which it has [[identification|identified]] during its [[development]]. He thought that an [[analysis]] had failed if it ended with the [[analysand]] [[identification|identifying]] with the [[analyst]]. At the conclusion of [[therapy]], what should have disappeared is the armour of the [[ego]], the glass cage of [[narcissistic]] [[illusion]]s.