EGO, DAMAGE INFLICTED ON THE

A conception of the ego as a decisive agency of the mind was the point of departure of psychoanalytical ego psychology, which teaches that the ego may have a normal development (the approximate meaning of "normal" being "socially adapted"). According to Heinz Hartmann, adaptation is an essential task of the ego, one performed in a conflict-free, autonomous dimension of the ego distinct from the dimension of the ego dominated by the instincts. But this independent domain of the ego is liable to suffer many sorts of damage, whether at the beginning of life or later on. The most recent research on infancy has shown that one of the causes of such damage is a lack of adequate bonds with the mother or mother substitute. Genetic causes no doubt also play a part, but in this area the state of our knowledge is still rudimentary.

Apart from bonds with the mother or mother substitute, there are particular social conditions that can inflict severe damage on the ego, damage that in some cases is irreparable. The later in life that these injuries occur, the easier it is for the ego to repair them with dispatch. But if instinctual forces have inflicted added damage, then the ego may not prevail, because the libido is too weak or a destructive instinct is too powerful.

According to Paul Federn, damage of this kind may be sustained as a result of an early breakdown of ego boundaries. Where these boundaries are not well developed, they may at any time be overwhelmed by the destructive instinct, and death or suicide may ensue. Both these eventualities are possible in the course of childhood. In adolescence and adulthood, suicide is always the result of injuries to the ego; in old age, however, these considerations no longer apply.

Ernst Federn

See also: Ego; Ego (ego psychology).

Bibliography

Weiss, Edoardo. (1951). Paul Federn's scientific contributions: In commemoration. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 32 (4), 1-8.

——. (1952). Introduction to Paul Federn's ego psychology and the psychoses. New York: Basic Books.

——. (1966). Paul Federn: the theory of the psychoses. In Franz Alexander, Samuel Eisenstein, and Martin Grotjahn (Eds.), Psychoanalytic Pioneers. New York: Basic Books.