Ego-psychology
| French: psychologie du moi |
Ego-psychology is a school of post-Freudian psychoanalysis, derived from child psychology, Freud's second topography and Anna Freud's work on the ego and its defences.
It is based on an elaboration of Freud's structural model of the mind, which focuses almost entirely on the function of the ego in mediating between the conflicting demands of the instinctual id, the moralistic superego and external reality.
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 Freudian 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.
Much of Lacanian 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.[1]
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."
See Also
References
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.l16
Index
- Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XX: Encore, On Feminine Sexuality, The Limits of Love and Knowledge 1972-1973. Trans. Bruce Fink. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998. p. 55n
