This paper reviews the history of ego psychology, describing problems in the theory that have perhaps contributed to subsequent theory development and theoretical splintering. The present status of ego psychology is then described, with a focus on broadly accepted general principles. A proposal/prediction is then made regarding efforts to integrate the main schools and splinter groups. It is argued that the ego’s method of synthesizing aspects of experience will help integrate divergent metapsychological viewpoints.
In this paper I will describe the history of ego psychology, review its status today, and look at its possible future development. It should be understood that my point of view will inevitably shape my survey of the field. This personal slant is inevitable when writing an overview of a field as broad and varied as ego psychology. Because even basic concepts in this area are often ambiguous and disputed, disagreements are inevitable. I hope, however, to point accurately to the general issues and to our commonalities. I will try to describe what most ego psychologists would agree is basic and will thereby attempt to achieve a defining consensus (which others may find dubious). I do feel that some consensus can be achieved and that it is necessary for the future development of our theory.
AN ANNOTATED HISTORY OF EGO PSYCHOLOGY
It may be helpful in reviewing the present and future status of ego psychology to understand its history. A mere recitation of facts and dates is seldom enlightening, yet an interpretive history is inevitably speculative. Nonetheless, I will attempt an annotated history in order to show the development of ego psychology based on problems of theory that might have spawned the birth of various movements within ego psychology (Rapaport 1959; Richards and Lynch 1998). Such a history might help us better understand the growth requirements and developmental potential of modern ego psychology.
When Freud wrote “The Ego and the Id” (1923), he changed the meaning of ego from self “as a whole, perhaps including the body,” to a set of related mental functions, “a part of the mind”. He thus gave birth to ego psychology, which was from its inception a study of mental functioning (Laplanche and Pontalis 1967). The ego became the term used for aspects of mental functioning that regulate and mediate between the experience of reality and the experience of the person. (Campbell 1989). A description of mental functioning focused at that time on collections of like functions called agencies and the conflicts between them (Moore and Fine 1990). Conflict was intrapsychic and occurred between some combination of the agencies ego, id, and superego. No longer was conflict viewed as occurring simply between the self as a whole and social morality or material reality; nor did it occur just between conscious and unconscious, or id and ego. This shift was needed to account for Freud’s observation of unconscious ego phenomena (1917,1921), unconscious superego phenomena, and the role of identifications with external objects in building internal superego and ego content and structure.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Using the laboratory of psychoanalytic treatment, we can achieve a better understanding of synthetic processes of the ego within and between the varying levels or points of view. This will help us understand the relation between varying schools, because tertiary process ought to apply not just to integrations of different levels of personality clinically, but also to different viewpoints of the metapsychologies and the ways in which they relate. Observation and theory building go hand in hand. Using a combination of the hierarchy concept and tertiary process descriptions, we could take this next integrative step in modern ego psychology’s development. This step will involve case reports showing relationships and integrations.
In order to integrate, we must work out common definitions, agree on terminology for observations, and decide which aspects of the different levels fit, are useful, and are observable, and which are grandiose rhetorical flourishes that are best jettisoned.