Ego Psychology Research Articles

Group Analysis and the Different Approaches: The Portuguese Contribution. A Tribute to E.L. Cortesão

The development of psychoanalysis itself and, in particular, the publication of the so called Freud’s anthropological works led to the appearance and growth of group psychotherapy, namely, of their psychoanalytic approaches. Their general characteristics are described and some of their particular aspects (Slavson, Wolf and Schwartz, Ezriel, Bion) referred. The importance of the contributions of Ego psychology, ORT and self-psychology in this evolution are particularly stressed. The use of philosophical (existential) models, though complemented by psychoanalytical and behavioural contributions (Yalom) are also referred. The point of view and basic conceptions of group analysis, the most diffused of analytical group psychotherapies in Europe, are particularly described and, in their context, the points of view of Trigant Burrow, Foulkes and Cortesão compared. Cortesão’s points of view are particularly developed and, among them, the conceptions of group-analytic process (developed in analogy with Bibring similar point of view established in the psychoanalytic setting), group-analytic pattern and matrix, changing levels of experience and interpretation, specific aspects of group-analytical transference, commutative interpretation, aesthetic balance and its importance in the group analytic process. The working through of the group transference neurosis becomes a nuclear step in this approach. Finally, Foulkes’ and Cortesão’s approaches in group-analysis are compared and the similarities between them underlined, in spite of some apparent contradictions.

Theoretical pluralism in psychoanalytic case studies.

The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the scientific activity of different psychoanalytic schools of thought in terms of the content and production of case studies published on ISI Web of Knowledge. Between March 2013 and November 2013, we contacted all case study authors included in the online archive of psychoanalytic and psychodynamic case studies (www.singlecasearchive.com) to inquire about their psychoanalytic orientation during their work with the patient. The response rate for this study was 45%. It appears that the two oldest psychoanalytic schools, Object-relations psychoanalysis and Ego psychology or “Classical psychoanalysis” dominate the literature of published case studies. However, most authors stated that they feel attached to two or more psychoanalytic schools of thought. This confirms that the theoretical pluralism in psychoanalysis stretches to the field of single case studies. The single case studies of each psychoanalytic school are described separately in terms of methodology, patient, therapist, or treatment features. We conclude that published case studies features are fairly similar across different psychoanalytic schools. The results of this study are not representative of all psychoanalytic schools, as some do not publish their work in ISI ranked journals.

Neuroscience Implications of Using Hypnoanalysis: Two Case Studies

Abstract Neuroscience is providing growing evidence that psychopathology is related to neural integration and amygdala-based implicit memories. Understanding the brain provides psychotherapists a guide for treatment, and neuroscience points to hypnosis as a potent treatment tool. Hypnosis affects functional areas of the brain, including the amygdaloid memory system and neural integration. Hypnosis in itself is not curative. Neuroscience, more recent psychotherapy models, and modern understandings of hypnoanalysis appear to confirm Freud’s early observations of hypnosis effectiveness and, for his objection that hypnosis works well for some clients but not for others, explain why. Neuroscience’s understanding of the development of psychopathology and psychotherapy models give us tools and models Freud did not have. Using age regression (abreaction) in hypnosis in the context of psychotherapy appear to provide direct access to amygdala-based implicit memories during which the content of implicit memories can be explored for the unconscious meaning and for the responses conditioned during traumatic events. With the skilled use of psychotherapy treatment models while a client is in hypnosis, new patterns can be created through neurologically vividly experiences. These vivid experiences create new, reconditioned patterns that appear to reflect direct changes in the amygdala-based implicit memories and neural integration, evidenced by clients’new, automatic responses in previously difficult circumstances. Two case studies illustrate the use of Ego Psychology, Self Psychology, Attachment and Narrative psychotherapy models during hypnotic age regressions to disconnect stimulus-response patterns in a phobia client and provide vivid experiences of attachment and guidance for a borderline client.

Kleptomanide ayırıcı tanı ve psikodinamik yaklaşım: Bir olgu sunumu

Kleptomania is the inability to refrain from the urge to steal items for reasons other than personal use or financial gain. The disorder is frequently under-diagnosed and is regularly accompanied by other psychiatric disorders; particularly anxiety disorders, eating disorders and affective disorders. Our patient is a 19-year-old female, who was referred to our hospital from a general state hospital. She suffered from a desire to steal things such as makeup materials and perfume. She also complained carrying out inappropriate sexual behavior. She had depressive and obsessive-compulsive symptoms and attempted suicide three times in past years. She knew her grandmother as her mother, despite living in the same household. According to classical psychoanalytical theory; kleptomania is a defense against unconscious impulses, desires, conflicts and needs. The individual who is prone to narcissistic injury tries to prevent the self from disintegrating by the way of stealing behavior. Among psychodynamic theories, ego psychology, self-psychology and object relations theory also have explanations for kleptomania. This case has symptoms that belong to other psychiatric disorders. Thus, the case presented here is important for its emphasis on the fact that categorical and symptom oriented approaches are far from considering patients as a whole.

Out of Character: Modernism, Vitalism, Psychic Life by Omri Moses (review)

Reviewed by: Out of Character: Modernism, Vitalism, Psychic Life by Omri Moses Sarah Posman Omri Moses. Out of Character: Modernism, Vitalism, Psychic Life. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2014. 296 pp. $65.00 (cloth). At first sight this book seems to be out of tune with the new modernism studies and its agenda of both recalibrating what we understand by “modernism” (a radically expanded field) and our methods of reading modernist texts (reading “badly”) (see Mao and Walkowitz). Moses deals with canonical modernist authors who share a commitment to the intricacies of psychology (23). He moves from the late prose of Henry James (The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, The Golden Bowl), past Gertrude Stein (“Melanctha” from Three Lives [1903] and the chapter on Henry James in the late Four in America [1933]) to the early poems of T. S. Eliot. His focus on “character” and its relation to ethics returns us to one of the classic themes in literary criticism. But of course Out of Character is a wayward title, signaling that the book wants to move away from the well-trodden paths. The feat of this study is that it constructs a complex story of dynamic continuities—between different authors, between realism and modernism, classic and vanguard ways of reading, individual and community, the intimate and the public—that accentuates rather than downplays the innovative agendas of modernist writing. In engaging perceptively with vitalism, furthermore, Moses makes an important contribution to recent work in modernism studies that is reconsidering vitalist thought as a fruitful intellectual context (see Burwick and Douglass; Jones; Ardoin, Gontarski, and Mattison). Moses’s path “out of character” leads him via George Eliot’s, Joseph Conrad’s, and Herman Melville’s approaches to character into the “psychic life” explored by James, Stein, and Eliot. He argues that where, in realist fiction, character was grounded in an overt (Eliot) or mysterious (Conrad) consistent system, Melville’s poetic of inconsistency paved the way for modernist experiment with agile, adjusting [End Page E-1] selves. Where Melville veers toward a sterile inconsistency, however, the modernists’ fascination with continuous change over time—inspired by, according to Moses, primarily Darwin, William James, and Bergson—enables them to invent new modes of relationality: interest for James, habit for Stein, and voice for Eliot. Moses’s stress on the self as category and his attention to the question of how the exploration of affective constellations by both authors and readers relates to a communal endeavor align his project with other recent work in both affect studies and literary criticism (see, for example, Ngai; also Izenberg). In the first chapter, before embarking on the case studies, Moses tackles “personhood beyond personality.” Here he positions his approach to a dynamic modernist self in relation to a range of other disciplines and methodologies, calling for a critical perspective that brings to light frictions in modernist thinking rather than staging a critical version of the radical modernist “make it new” story. He argues, for example, that the modernist discourse around impersonality has often been understood in too-rigid terms. Rather than an attempt to erase a self, the concept of impersonality should be seen as part of a complex psychological enterprise, with authors relating different psychological templates from ego psychology to behaviorism. On the questions of psychology and ethics (how does individual life relate to the good life?) and of self and history (how determining is context?) Moses repeats this gesture of moving beyond an either/or logic. Concerning the former, for example, he suggests we understand ethical life analogously to an artistic or aesthetic project, with creativity and the ability to change and adapt as inherent to the process. Fictional ethical life is important to our “real” ethical deliberations, furthermore, not because it promotes useful identification through exemplarity but rather because its very fictionality enables us to deal with decision-making on another level. Fiction, and the real emotions that it elicits, makes it possible for us to access a mode of reflection that stands apart from efficient or productive living. Moses’s dynamic stance and his attention to non-instrumental modes of reflection are informed by the vitalist framework he uses. In the introduction he...

A Different Kind of Fraternity: Psychological Change and Group Dynamics of Male Batterers

With few exceptions, outcome studies evaluating batterer treatment groups are inconclusive at best and, at worst, label such treatment programs as ineffectual. This qualitative research study was developed in an effort to understand the forces behind how positive change either happens or is subverted. Through analysis of treatment groups for batterers, the study investigated two questions: How do batterer treatment groups affect the psychological defenses of the members? What types of group dynamics emerge in offender treatment that might be unique to this population and promote defensive change? The theoretical frameworks used in this project include constructs from ego psychology related to defensive maturity and the curative factors in group process, articulated by Yalom (2005).

Windhorse Treatment: Group Dynamics Within Therapeutic Environments

This article describes an outpatient contemplative psychology treatment modality, Windhorse, in terms understandable to clinicians with ego psychology–based concepts of group dynamics and to those in any psychotherapeutic treatment facility. Described is a complex overlapping system of treatment groups that together form the transferential field of the treatment team. The phenomena of transference, countertransference, exchange, and split transferences are described from a mindfulness-based perspective, within the treatment groups, which include the clients, family, and staff. Clinical supervision within the team is discussed.

Ernst Kris in America

This paper traces the career of the psychoanalyst Ernst Kris after his emigration to the United States in 1940 and describes how his work as a psychoanalyst took new dimensions that embraced a myriad of activities. He edited The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, directed longitudinal research studies at the Yale Child Study Center, and advocated for the importance of research on infant and child development for advancing psychoanalytic theory and technique, including research on the creative process in young children. At the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, he was a teacher and training analyst, a discussant of 30 papers presented at its scientific meetings, and Director of the Gifted Adolescent Project. With Heinz Hartmann and Rudolph Loewenstein, he co-authored six papers on psychoanalytic drive theory and ego psychology.

A quest for truth or solidarity? A third way ahead for psychoanalysis

Today, there are two ways of conceiving psychoanalysis, a classical one focused on the search for truth within the internal world of the patient, and a contemporary one perceiving the patient–therapist relationship as the axis of exploration. Rorty's criterion, which divides disciplines into either truth-based or solidarity-based, may be applied to this dichotomy. These conflicting positions come from two different historical periods: the Enlightenment and the contemporary world. They inhabit a sterile environment without theoretical discussion or comparison. The Renaissance relocated man at the centre of creation and urged him to seek encounters with others as well as with the truth concealed in nature. Possibly, these elements of truth and solidarity, initially designed as complementary, integrative, and nonconflicting, can be found in the work of some psychoanalysts, specifically in Otto Kernberg's proposals. Kernberg makes a creative integration of object relations theory, especially in its Kleinian approach, and ego psychology. In addition, Kernberg's consideration of affects as key elements of the human's internal world reflects a third psychoanalytical “way,” exposing the centrality of relational experiences from the earliest stages of life, alongside constitutional drive forces that link us to our biological make-up and determine much of our inner world and behaviour.

Ego, drives, and the dynamics of internal objects.

This paper addresses the relationship between the ego, id, and internal objects. While ego psychology views the ego as autonomous of the drives, a less well-known alternative position views the ego as constituted by the drives. Based on Freud’s ego-instinct account, this position has developed into a school of thought which postulates that the drives act as knowers. Given that there are multiple drives, this position proposes that personality is constituted by multiple knowers. Following on from Freud, the ego is viewed as a composite sub-set of the instinctual drives (ego-drives), whereas those drives cut off from expression form the id. The nature of the “self” is developed in terms of identification and the possibility of multiple personalities is also established. This account is then extended to object-relations and the explanatory value of the ego-drive account is discussed in terms of the addressing the nature of ego-structures and the dynamic nature of internal objects. Finally, the impact of psychological conflict and the significance of repression for understanding the nature of splits within the psyche are also discussed.

Discussion of "Psychodynamic therapies with infants and parents: a critical review of treatment methods".

Bjorn Salomonsson does an excellent job critically reviewing a variety of psychodynamic therapies with infants and parents (PTIP), including methods which are less well known to American audiences, particularly those from the French and Scandinavian traditions. Thus, this review article is both a gift and a challenge to American readers and an obvious challenge to an American discussant immersed in (1) conflict and compromise formation theory (or as is better known as American Ego Psychology) and in (2) systematic empirical approaches to psychodynamic concepts and treatment. Can one objectively evaluate theories and methods which rely on assumptions unlike those to which one has been accustomed? These difficulties must be borne in mind and overcome because, perhaps unintentionally, Salomonsson’s contribution is valuable for all psychodynamic clinicians and researchers. This article raises ideas which may help us in our most important task of refining methods to evaluate the nature of the mutative agents in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic therapies. Salomonsson notes that the psychoanalytic study of the mother–infant dyad, one of the last patient categories to be studied psychoanalytically, began with the work of Selma Fraiberg and Francoise Dolto. Contrasting the American and the European literature, Salomonsson

행복과 기독교상담

In this paper, the study of happiness will be analyzed and the use of it in psychology and therapy will be discussed. Happiness as experienced by ordinary people has been one of the most important concepts in human life and the object in psychological studies. There have been earlier studies about happiness in psychological studies. The contributions to the field of ego psychology, humanistic psychology and existential psychology will be examined. Then, this paper outlines the concept of happiness in positive psychology, a field that has grown since 1998. The emphasis in positive psychology on positive emotion, positive character, and positive institutions has been a refreshing focus, breaking from a preoccupation with mental illness and psychological disorder in the mental health field. Positivepsychology, through its comprehensive classification of human virtues opens the possibility of dialogue between empirical psychology and religious virtue ethics. In particular, the concept of happiness used in the studies of positive psychology varies from subjective well-being, to the fulfillment of life goals. From the Christian worldview, however, positive psychology is too positive, by focusing too much on happiness. Since human beings are all created in the image of God, we have some positive strengths that reflect that image. At the same time, we have sinful nature which has been badly marred through sin. A limitation in secular psychology is to try to be happy, to have a well-lived life with flourishing, without God at the center of such a life. The genuine happy life is the abundant that is found in Jesus Christ.

Reconsidering Self and Identity Through a Dialogue Between Neuroscience and Psychoanalytic Theory

The terms self and identity have figured prominently in psychological and psychoanalytic writings despite a lack of consistent definitions. Whereas most attempts to clarify the terms have been in the context of a particular theoretical model such as ego psychology, self-psychology, or object relations theory, these clarifications were limited to that particular frame of reference. This paper presents evidence from the dynamic systems models of neuroscience as a foundation to inform psychoanalytic theory toward a clarification of these terms. The neuroscience data supports a distinction between self and identity relative to right hemisphere, reflexive, nonlinguistic experience and left hemisphere, reflective, linguistically mediated experience. A parallel between the empirical study of consciousness in terms of ownership, agency, unity, and continuity is also made with contemporary psychoanalytic concepts and their relationship to self and identity. Additionally, the article offers suggestions for a mutually informing dialogue between psychoanalysis and neuroscience in the hopes of promoting interdisciplinary research.

Analysis of Developmental Trauma

In this paper, a model that attempts to integrate ego psychology, drive-conflict theory, somatic psychology, object relations, and self-psychology in analysis of developmental trauma, is presented. Latest findings of neuroscience are presented to support the proposed integrated model, and it is shown that, based on this model, character structure can be viewed as a result of developmental trauma. Formal definitions of emotions, feelings, and affects based on the theory of complex dynamical systems and energy exchange, as well as neuroscience are presented. The importance of shame in formation of developmental trauma is also discussed and supporting material from neuroscience is provided. The complementary nature of conflict psychology and psychology of the self, within the proposed integrated model, is discussed with implications to body psychotherapy in general and bioenergetic analysis in particular.

Gombrich, Art and Psychoanalysis

Ernst H. Gombrich has always shown particular attention to the psychology of art as psychology of representation (and enjoyment) of art. In addition, through his friendship with Ernst Kris, who had been a respected art historian in the staff of the Kunsthisthorisches Museum in Vienna before becoming an important psychoanalyst, Gombrich devoted some fundamental essays on the contribution of psychoanalysis to the study of art. The main novelty and the most original feature of his contribution to this field (and which cannot easily be differentiated in general theoretical terms from Kris’s one) lies in his focus on Freud’s theories on jokes and in his adherence to the concept of “controlled regression in the service of the ego” introduced by so-called Ego Psychology This allowed Gombrich not only to highlight a perfect relationship between Freud’s theoretical thinking and his conservative attitude in the field of aesthetics, but also to use psychoanalysis to underline the historical and cultural character of the processes of representation and enjoyment.

Psychoanalysis, artistic obsession, and artistic motivation: the study of pathography.

A modern assessment of Freud's conceptualization of the creative process focusing on drives, ego psychology, and object relation theory is presented. 40 artists and musicians were interviewed employing 13 open-ended questions to provoke responses historically associated with the theoretical conceptualizations of Freud and post-Freudian theory related to the creative process. Creative process was defined as internal object relations that motivate the external connection between artist and the creative work. Measured responses concerning purpose and understanding; motivation before, during, and after performance; obstacles in performance; and needs through the creative process were assessed. Cluster analysis segregated the participants into high, medium, and low agreement groups based on similarity of responses. A multivariate stepwise regression revealed four questions (enlightenment, drives, obstacles, and ought self discrepancies) accounted for 83.9% of the variance. A post hoc discriminant function analysis identified 82.5% of the population to their correct groups. The findings support Spitz's (2005) suggestion that we regard "drives, ego psychology, and object relation theory not as separate approaches but as parts of a whole with varying stresses or accents" (p. 503).

The Connotation, Mechanism and Effects of Self-Brand Connections

Self-brand Connections (SBC) measure the extent to which consumers have incorporated brands into their individual or social self-concept. There are two types of mechanisms that explain the formation of brand connections. In the viewpoint of consumers’ identity, consumers construct individual, social or national brand connections according to different aspects of identity. From the perspective of brand communication, the formation of brand connections consisted of three stages. The effects of self-brand connections are that brand connections have active, positive influence on the consumer-brand relationship, but this effect realized will be affected by many factors. Future studies should focus on cultural psychology, ego psychology of self-brand connections and the mechanism of our country consumers how to form national brand connections.

Dreamwork: Sylvia Plath's Cold War Modernism

This article proposes that Plath is best understood as a Cold War modernist, notwithstanding her continuing insertion into canonical literary histories as a ‘confessional’ poet. It reassesses the psychoanalytic burden of her writing in terms of its vexed relationship to the ideologies and institutions of the long 1950s, and in particular, to the post-war apparatus of ego psychology. Paying particular attention to the Bee Poems of 1962, I discuss Plath's attempt to retrieve the remnants of the legacy of the Surrealist avant-garde within the dominant register of institutionalized psychiatry. Her privileging in the later poetry of psychical and sensory intensities, I argue, shows the impact of Freud's description, in The Interpretation of Dreams, of the operation of dreams and of the dream image.

Ego Psychological Contributions to Understanding Psychopharmacology and Clinical Practice in Social Work Education

Due to increasing evidence that supports the efficacy of combined pharmacology and psychotherapy in the treatment of multiple psychiatric disorders, an educational focus on integrated approaches is growing in social work and related fields. However, there are few guiding clinical theoretical models that can help students integrate pharmacology and clinical issues. The authors propose that ego psychology can advance clinical knowledge by helping students understand pharmacological issues and integrate pharmacotherapy with psychotherapy. Assessing ego functions in response to medication referral and use contributes to enhanced assessment and treatment.

Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) Expansion: Measuring Racial, Religious, and National Aspects of Sense of Ethnic Identity Within the United Kingdom

These studies examined the degree to which racial, religious, and national aspects of individuals' sense of ethnic identity stand as interrelated, yet distinct, constructs. Results of exploratory factor analyses in Study 1 (n = 272) revealed that a three-factor model specifying racial, religious, and national identities yielded optimal fit to correlational data from an expanded, 36-item version of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM; Roberts et al., 1999), although results left room for improvement in model fit. Subsequently, results of confirmatory factor analyses in Study 2 (n = 291) revealed that, after taking covariance among the items into account, a six-factor model specifying exploration and commitment dimensions within each of the racial, religious, and national identity constructs provided optimal fit. Implications for the utility of Goffman's (1963b) interactionist role theory and Erikson's (1968) ego psychology for understanding the full complexity of felt ethnic identity are discussed.