Ego psychology is the school of psychoanalytic psychology examining how the ego manages internal drives and adapts to external reality through its own functions, including a set of defenses that supervise, regulate and oppose the id. Anna Freud's 1936 study The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence established its clinical approach, and Heinz Hartmann extended it by proposing that some ego functions develop with autonomy from libidinal and aggressive drives rather than only as products of conflict, as Freud himself had held.
Facts
Central QuestionHow does the ego actively and adaptively mediate between inner drives and outer reality, and what defense mechanisms does it use to do so? 1 Founded Year Still Active Connections
Founded By
Source Wikipedia: Ego Psychology
In Branch
Opposed By
Source Wikipedia: Lacanianism
School Theories
Source Wikipedia: Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Ego Psychology
Wikimedia FoundationAnna Freud section
the ego was predisposed to supervise, regulate, and oppose the id through a variety of defenses.
Lead section
the ego's normal and pathological development, its management of libidinal and aggressive impulses, and its adaptation to reality.
Founded By: Anna Freud, Systematization section
Following Sigmund Freud, the psychoanalysts most responsible for the development of ego psychology, and its systematization as a formal school of psychoanalytic thought, were Anna Freud, Heinz Hartmann, and David Rapaport.
2. Ego Psychology (Wikipedia)
Article textQuote, Article text
In the United States, ego psychology was the predominant psychoanalytic approach from the 1940s through the 1960s.
Wikipedia: Lacanianism
Wikimedia FoundationOpposed By: Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Article textQuote, Opposed By: Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Article text
Developing Henri Wallon's concept of infant mirroring, he used the idea of the mirror stage to demonstrate the imaginary nature of the ego, in opposition to the views of ego psychology.
Wikipedia: Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development
Wikimedia FoundationSchool Theories: Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development, Article textQuote, School Theories: Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development, Article text
Erikson also influenced ego psychology by insinuating that the ego was active, adaptive, and shaped by social context instead of being purely motivated by unconscious drives.
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