Mature Ego Research Articles

Analisis Id, Ego, dan Supergo pada Tokoh Lolita dalam Novel Secret Obsession Karya Anggarani

Id, ego and super-ego are separate psychic structures in humans but interact with each other. This concept was formulated by Sigmund Freud. This journal discusses the id, ego and super-ego in the literary work of the novel entitled Secret Obsession by Angkai. The problem of this research is how the id, ego and super-ego influence the behavior of the main character in the novel entitled Secret Obsession by Budgeti. The method used in this research uses a literary psychology approach with Sigmud Freud's psychoanalysis theory regarding the id, ego and super-ego of the character Lolita in the novel Secret Obsession by Budgeti. The results of this research can be concluded that Lolita shows more mature ego development, is able to control the id's feelings of pleasure and interact more realistically. Additionally, Lolita's superego side shows moral evolution, such as guilt, regret, and the drive to become a better person. The factors that influence the development of Lolita's character consist of the people around her, the environment, and hurt feelings. Analysis is carried out from the beginning, middle, to the end of the story, showing significant character evolution.

A Little Girl’s Recovery: An Analysis of a Six-Year-Old Girl Who Experienced Loss

ABSTRACT This paper will focus on the process of recovery during the analysis of a latency girl referred after the death of her mother, having been expelled from several schools due to aggressive outbursts and early attachment disruptions in her relationship with the father. The intent of this paper is to illustrate the internal conflicts and difficulty with aggression surrounding early traumatic loss of her mother. The inner work on a trauma never ceases and through the transferential process this child was able to reexperience her early relationship with her mother leading to more mature ego development. The analytic work with Katie shows how her integrative capacity allowed for her to mourn.

A Multifactorial Interpretation of a Teenager's Suicide: Based on Krystal's Death in Casual Vacancy.

ObjectivesIt is hard to accumulate research data on adolescents’ suicide, because friends and family of the suicide completers might be reluctant to share the experience. To overcome the lack of information on adolescent suicide victims, the authors examined the risk and protective factors for adolescents’ suicide from a character in a novel.MethodsKrystal, an adolescent female in the novel The Casual Vacancy by Joanne Rowling, failed to overcome her unfortunate cir-cumstances and committed suicide. The authors analysed Krystal’s case based on the guideline for patients with suicidal behaviours to address the complicated situation of her death.ResultsKrystal grew up in a poor and dangerous environment. Despite the environmental hardships, she developed ego maturation with affectionate help from Mr Fairbrother, an assistant coach of the Girls’ Rowing Team and a parish councillor. The sudden passing away of Mr Fairbrother brought on a crisis of identity for Krystal. In addition, a villainous character raped her and her brother drowned to death, which brought her great sorrow. She felt helpless and committed suicide.ConclusionIn spite of many risk factors for suicide, Krystal was able to keep her life with a few protective factors, a younger brother in the home, and a sense of responsibility for the family. After the loss of her brother, however, she collapsed in a moment. Krystal’s suicide might not only be a personal choice but a breakdown of the social protection system for the youth.

Nietzsche’s Psychology of the Self: the Art of Overcoming the Divided Self

In Nietzsche’s early to middle works, he has some interesting things to say about the psychology of the self. Indeed, Nietzsche explores the psychological consequences of the self that consists of a synthesis of competing opposites that are in a constant of flux. In order to make sense of the self, Nietzsche draws from the Hellenistic tradition of philosophy to conceptualise a therapeutic art of self-cultivation (Bildung) where the individual’s life is their work of art because every work of art is first turned toward the self and then toward others. This is why Nietzsche develops a mode of self-cultivation that is intimately connected with the painful labour of self-analysis in the hope of the self’s overcoming (Ubergang); however, this is not enough by itself because it requires an understanding of the unconscious self that we have suppressed and repressed from ourselves, as well as the psychopathologies that they give rise to. To Nietzsche, the reason why we must undertake this difficult task of self-cultivation is the realisation that we need to free ourselves of narcissism, and its pathological symptoms found within the self, particularly if we are going to achieve a temperate and mature ego that is healthy for both the self and others.

Phenomenological Study on the Experience of Adult Learners of the 'Late Learner' Doctoral Program

본 연구는 박사과정에 도전한 “늦깎이” 성인학습자의 체험에 대한 의미와 본질을 탐색하고자 함을목적으로 하였다. 이를 통해 오늘날의 교육 현상에 대한 지평을 확장하는 한편, ‘늦깎이’ 박사과정이라는 교육 현상에 대한 실천적 시사점을 논의하고자 한다. 연구방법으로 van Manen의 해석학적 현상학을 기반으로 체험적 공간성, 체험적 신체성, 체험적 시간성, 체험적 관계성의 네 가지 실존체로분석하여 탐색하였다. 연구 참여자들의 심층면담을 통하여 ‘늦깎이’ 박사과정 성인학습자들의 체험은총 4개의 본질적 주제와 그에 따른 주제가 10개 도출되었다. 네 가지 본질적 주제는 ‘성장에 따른 성숙한 자아’, ‘초월적 학습자’, ‘인생 끝이 아닌 또 다른 시작’, ‘평생을 통해 이루어지는 학습’이었다. 이를 해석학적 현상학으로 기술하면 첫째, 연구 참여자들은 지적 호기심 충족과 심리적 만족으로 인해성숙한 삶을 영위하며 둘째, 나이 듦의 신체적 한계를 극복하는 지식을 향한 초월적 학습자의 특성을가지며 셋째, 업무와 학문의 만남은 연속성을 가진 직업으로 재탄생하여 자신의 발전을 넘어 사회발전에 이바지하고픈 본질적 의미를 확인하였다. 마지막으로 배움과 가르침의 순환적 삶을 통해 평생학습자로 스스로 체화된 기저를 가지고 있었다. 이를 통해 종합적으로 볼 때, ‘늦깎이’ 박사과정 체험의의미 기저에는 학습 그 자체에 대한 즐거움과 학습열정에 의한 현상임을 나타내고 있다. 이를 바탕으로 결론에서는 본 연구를 통해 나타난 교육현상에 대한 실천적 시사점을 논의한다.The purpose of this thesis is to explore the meaning and nature of the experience of a ‘late learner’ adult learner who challenged the doctoral program. This expands the horizon of today s educational phenomenon and discusses practical implications of the educational phenomenon of the “late learner” doctoral program. Based on van Manen s hermeneutical phenomenology, the research method was analyzed by analyzing four kinds of existent objects: lived space, lived body, lived time, and lived human relation. Through the in-depth interviews of the participants, the experience of ‘late learner’ doctoral course adult learners resulted in four essential themes and ten themes. The four essential themes were mature ego by growth , transcendental learners , another start, not the end of life , Learning done throughout life-long . In terms of hermeneutic phenomenology, first, research participants lead a mature life due to their intellectual curiosity and psychological satisfaction second, it has characteristics of transcendental learners toward knowledge that overcomes the physical limitations of aging. Third, the meeting between work and academic is reborn as a career with continuity and confirmed the essential meaning to contribute to social development beyond its own development. Finally, they had the basis of themselves embodied as lifelong learners through the cyclical life of learning and teaching. By this, when judging comprehensively, The meaning of ’late learner’ doctoral experience is based on the enjoyment of learning itself and the phenomenon of learning passion. Based on this, the conclusions discusses practical implications of educational phenomena through this study.

Seeing without self: Discovering new meaning with psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy

ABSTRACTNew research in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy merits a reexamination of the neurobiology and phenomenology of psychedelic states. First person accounts of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy are used to re-conceptualize the ego boundary as a defense mechanism which regulates the significance that objects hold for the self. Therapeutic action is attributed to ego dissolution, which enables subjects to see new significance in things. This process coincides neurobiologically with uncoupling certain midline cortical structures, and psychodynamically, with deactivating defense mechanisms which mitigate the threat of losing the loved object. It also enables the dreamlike imagery, symbols, and metaphor of the primary process, a regression to earlier ways of relating to objects, and feelings of love and connectivity. The process supports Freud's ideas about the oceanic mode of relating to the world existing alongside the narrower, mature ego feeling. The former is better suited for finding meaning in life, while the latter is better suited for survival. The noetic quality of the psychedelic state derives from an unconscious recognition that experiences without character defenses feel more genuine than others, and conform to earlier ways of feeling and thinking. The accessibility of the primary process makes psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy transformative, not just informative. An analogy is drawn to Fonagy's developmental model of mentalization. Absent the defensive, self-critical lens of a prior self-concept, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy serves as an ideal paradigm for the transformative experience of seeing oneself through the eyes of another, leading to greater self-acceptance. Flight instructions for navigating this royal road to the unconscious are considered.

Aesthetic Experience Anchors Ego Identity Formation

The development of a coherent identity status, also referred to as ego identity, is critical during adolescence and early-adulthood. In the long run, an individual’s ego identity status may influence the sustainability of his or her well-being. Researchers have attempted to discover the predictors or factors correlated with one’s identity status. In that search, aesthetic experience, as a unique means of knowing oneself and the world, seemed to be overlooked. Philosophical and psychological discourses have asserted that aesthetic experience stimulated identity discovery and formation; this hypothesis, however, is not supported by strong quantitative evidence. Thus, an empirical study with a quantitative approach was conducted to examine whether those who have frequent aesthetic experiences are more likely to possess a mature ego identity. A sample of 758 valid questionnaires was collected. The results supported the argument that aesthetic experience favors the development of ego identity. In addition, this study revealed that sociodemographic backgrounds such as women, fine arts and design majors, and religious individuals were more likely to have a rich aesthetic life. The results imply that aesthetic experience serves as a crucial aspect that contributes to the wellness of personality development and promotes a healthy and sustainable quality of life.

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE: QUALITATIVE STUDY OF ADOLESCENT FEMALES’ LIVED EXPERIENCE

Background. Different aspects of adolescent suicidal behaviour are explored, however, they are interpreted in terms suitable mostly for adult suicidal behaviour. Knowledge on adolescent suicidality is far from comprehensive. Aims . To describe the lived experience of attempted suicide among young females and to unfold distinctiveness of such experience. Method . Three adolescent females aged 13 to 17, who attempted suicide within one year period while not in the state of psychosis, took part in the study. Research was conducted using interpretative phenomenological analysis – a qualitative research method which aims to explore both experience of a person and one’s trying to make sense of it. Data was collected during semi-structured interviews which allowed setting a closer contact with respondents. Results. Data analysis showed that though a fair amount of attempted suicide experiences of adolescent females is similar to those of adults, there are some distinct features: sense of overwhelming experience and amassing bothers, liveliness of past experiences in the present, great lack of support in close relationships, difficulties reflecting and controlling emotions and thoughts. Conclusions. These results support the huge importance of appropriate responses of the surrounding people and mental health care professionals to the state of suicidal adolescent female. Also, it is necessary to teach adolescent females to effectively manage their emotions and impulses, and to develop mature ego defense mechanisms. Further research could contribute to the creation of guidelines to such behaviour or training and a deeper understanding of the psychological state of suicidal adolescents.

When Fast-Held God Images Fail to Meet Our Needs: A Psychoanalytic Reading of Job Chapters 6 and 7

This article will analyze the biblical book of Job as a model by which clinicians, professors, and ministers today may tease out the idealized projection of perfection that pervades our practices, classrooms, and churches. The book of Job provides a model for how one begins to work toward integration and wholeness by living through the reality of trauma with one another. By excavating the fast-held god image formulated within the Deuteronomistic theology underlying the book of Job, and Job’s not-so-subtle aggression in response, I will show how his story re-evaluates and re-imagines entrenched god images that oppress and divide in times of crisis. Such re-imagining enables Job’s ego maturation as he challenges the communal dogma constructed during postexilic Israel that perpetuated isolation and inward regression. Using W. R. D Fairbairn and D. W. Winnicott, two post-Freudian object relations psychoanalysts, I will analyze what lies behind the schizoid psyche in relation to the story of Job. I will show how Job’s aggression and anger, questioning the deeply held beliefs of self, God, and other held in postexilic Israel, provide academics and faith communities alike a new way to imagine healing.

Superego and Sexuality: An Analysis of a Psychosomatic Solution

Superego influences have been little considered in the current literature on psychosomatic illnesses; an archaic and sadistic superego, however, is often a dominating force in the maintenance of these painful bodily states. This dynamic is illustrated in the analysis of a dissociated and concrete patient, whose primary modes of defense, self-reparation, and object-relationship were at first erotized bodily pain and illness. Analysis of an intense, highly conflicted transference facilitated the gradual emergence of this patient's capacity to make use of a metaphorical interpretive process. Severe narcissistic injuries were integrated, allowing the evolution of a mourning process. This fostered individuation of the self, establishment of a differentiated body image, an integrated superego, consolidated object relations, and a more mature ego ideal.

Who Am I Now? Using Life Span Theories in Psychotherapy in Late Adulthood

Although academic and clinical psychology do not often embrace, lifespan developmental constructs and theories can enrich the process of psychotherapy. Particularly in the last third of life, when social institutions and societal expectations provide less guidance and constraint, access to understandings about the lifespan may be especially useful. A life structure model of 20-year eras and periods of stability and evaluation/transformation can bring structure when life appears amorphous. Recognition of the ways that people of different ages experience time, and lifetime, can increase empathy and promote client's understanding of their own changes. Three dimensions of development—the ethic of care, the acquisition of integrity, and the building of an individuated and mature ego—can bring increased depth, vitality, fullness, and enjoyment to the last third of life. Therapists' ability to detect and articulate their client's developmental needs and process can enhance the work and further client's growth.

Adolescenza: il tempo del trauma, il trauma del tempo

- The beginning of puberty, with its bodily changes, triggers the adolescence process of transformation of the self image and of the relationship with the figures of the internal and external world. Internal and external factors may increase the pressure and the experiences of breakdown in the continuity and linearity of growth. Those experiences may, on one hand, reactivate old traumatic experiences and, on the other, offer the opportunity to perceive the transformation and separation from the world and from the objects of infancy, that is, time passing, as something of unthinkable, dangerous and shocking. From this point of view, adolescence could become the time of trauma and represent the trauma of time. Trauma can be defined not only on the basis of the consequences that an event produces on psychic organization, because of its intensity, but also in relation to the environment, the fundamental function of which is, at the beginning of life, to protect and make bearable reality to a more mature Ego. Exposing the subject to a new state of dependence from the environment, adolescence highlights the failures and insufficiencies of early experiences

Guilt and Its Multidimensionality: Empirical Approaches Using Klein’s View

After examining the definitions of persecutory and penitential types of guilt, based on Melanie Klein's view, we developed a single-item measure of these types and examined reliability and validity of the measure in three studies. Concurrent validity of the measure was shown among a university student population using the Test of Self-Conscious Affect-3 as an external validator. The questionnaire was not influenced by a socially desirable response style. Concurrent validity was demonstrated by studying different external variables: the two types of guilt feelings are moderately correlated with each other, but penitential guilt is more strongly correlated to variables related to ego maturation. Test-retest stability is only modest, suggesting that the constructs of measured guilt feelings may fluctuate over time.

The Missing Child in A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Indian boy over whom the king and queen of fairies quarrel is the most important of several characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream who do not appear on stage: his parents, who form with him a missing nuclear family; a child god, Cupid; and a female authority figure, the dowager to whose property the lovers Lysander and Hermia flee. In its narrative structure the play presents a healing regression to the early mother and the primary process. However, the regressive movement has disturbing, as well as adaptive, elements; in addition, while the characters are still in the forest, the play's troubled engagement with fathers has not yet been resolved. The burlesque performance of "Pyramus and Thisbe" disarms the attachment to childhood, presenting regressive modes of thought and behavior in absurd form, and thus helps complete a return to the world of the mature ego; the final act also reconstitutes the image of the father. But adult demystification and even a benign fatherly authority also appear limited, and the fairies return, bringing elements of childhood needed for a happy ending. Puck's epilogue suggests what Winnicott calls the infant's transitional experience, with its healing realm of play between dreams and objective reality, between enchantment and demystification. In the fairies' blessing, the missing child appears, still in absent form, as a child to come, a symbol of potentiality. Looming over that symbolic child is the Indian boy of Greek myth, the child god Bacchus. The play ends with a comic vision of a positive future and of amity with the often disturbing regressive elements still alive within adult psyches. Overriding the ironic and dark notes that recent critics have stressed in the play, that comic vision recreates for us a new beginning, including the new beginning of love, in the promise of a wished-for child.

Psychological Mindedness: A Neglected Developmental Line in Permissions to Think

Psychological mindedness is the capacity to self-reflect and to think of oneself and others as motivated by internal states. It is one aspect of thinking, a prerequisite for understanding intrapsychic and interpersonal phenomena and for insight and insight-oriented therapeutic interventions. This article outlines the development and permissions and nurturance psychological mindedness requires. Such a conceptualization allows one to consider deconfusion of the Child in terms of activating more mature ego state networks rather than in terms of insight into some specific content.

Breaking the solid ground of common sense: undoing "structure" with Michael Balint.

Balint's great merit was to question what, in the classical perspective, was assumed as a prerequisite for analysis and thus located beyond analysis: the maturity of the ego. A fundamental premise of his work was Ferenczi's distrust for the structural model, which praised the maturity of the ego and its verbal, social, and adaptive abilities. Ferenczi's view of ego maturation as a trauma derivative was strikingly different from the theories of all other psychoanalytic schools and seems to be responsible for Balint's understanding of regression as a sort of inverted process that enables the undoing of the sheltering structures of the mature mind. Balint's understanding of the relation between mature ego and regression diverged not only from the ego psychologists, who emphasized the idea of therapeutic alliance, but also from most of the authors who embraced the object-relational view, like Klein (who considered regression a manifestation of the patient's craving for oral gratification), Fairbairn (who gave up the notion of regression), and Guntrip (who viewed regression as a schizoid phenomenon related to the ego weakness). According to Balint, the clinical appearance of a regression would "depend also on the way the regression is recognized, is accepted, and is responded to by the analyst." In this respect, his position was close to Winnicott's reformulation of the therapeutic action. Yet, the work of Balint reflects the persuasion that the progressive fluidification of the solid structure could be enabled only by the analyst's capacity for becoming himself or herself [unsolid].

Linkage of Oedipal Dangers and Mastery to Theodor Herzl's Zionism

This paper demonstrates that Herzl's development of political Zionism was largely a reflection of his improved mastery of Oedipal dangers. Before his Zionism, he had been a total assimilationist. This was manifested in the nature of his disdainful attitude towards the Jewish masses and in idealization of selected non-Jews, as well as in his conflicted Jewish identity. In his thirties, various external events undermined the assimilationist approach; other events, plus ego maturation, allowed a more effective mastery of Oedipal dangers. Thus, he was able to react more appropriately and creatively to intensifying anti-Semitism by developing Zionism that reflected increased honor, manliness, and reconciliation.

Mature Ego Development: A Gateway to Ego Transcendence?

This paper explores whether the highest stage in ego development is indicative of ego-transcendence as I initially surmised. Overall, I will explore some of the similarities and differences between rational awareness of the limits of representational thought and genuine postsymbolic knowing. I will present the research territory with a linear and a non-linear model of human development. Both models can accommodate both Eastern and Western self theories including ego development theory and Alexander's levels of mind. Next, I will outline an alternative developmental trajectory based on Alexander's notion of the shifts in the dominant mode of processing from personal–verbal–discursive to transpersonal–postsymbolic. Then, I will present ego development theory as I conceive of it now and outline the important characteristics of the highest stage (Cook-Greuter, 1999). Finally, I will consider the question of whether and in what way the Unitive ego stage is related to higher consciousness and introduce two testable propositions to clarify the issue.

The Therapeutic Alliance

WILLIAM W MEISSNER, SJ., M.D.: The Therapeutic Alliance. Yale University Press, 1996, 385 pp., $40.00, ISBN 0-300-06684-8. Dr. Meissner has written a classic monograph on the therapeutic alliance that will stand as a definitive work. The book is organized into four parts. Part I focuses on the nature of the therapeutic alliance; it traverses the history of the concept and its definition. Its unique relationship to transference and countertransference are also introduced. Meissner pays heed to one of his fine mentors, Dr. Elizabeth Zetzel, in her classic initial delineation of the therapeutic alliance. Zetzel relied on the concept of mature ego functions in the patient as the backdrop for a good therapeutic alliance. Meissner notes that Zetzel was less clear on the relationship between transference and alliance. This was a historical point of confusion. Turning his attention to Greenson, Meissner notes that Greenson's working relationship focused on the patient's motivation to overcome the illness and the analyst's humanness mixed with straightforwardness and restraint (p. 13). Part I is also notable for one of the book's crucial contributions-the relationship between the therapeutic alliance and transference. Meissner clearly points out the necessary oscillation between the two during the course of treatment. As alliance is in the foreground, transference is in the background. As transference moves to the foreground, alliance moves to the background and at times may almost seem to disappear. Finding the right balance in this choreography within any given treatment is the key. He also notes how transference interpretations may bolster the alliance and how alliance interpretations may enrich the transference. With respect to countertransference, Meissner borrows from Burke and Tansey and outlines a six-step sequence of how countertransference can work favorably in the therapist's empathic connection to the patient. The author also does a wonderful job of pointing out the potential alliance pitfalls that may result from countertransference. Part II addresses the real relationship between therapist and patient and its connection to the therapeutic alliance. Meissner's main message here is that reality factors, in a fashion similar to transference and countertransference, are not at all the same as therapeutic alliance even though they may impinge on it significantly. Missalliances may be influenced by issues of illness, aging, race, gender, pregnancy, money, malpractice concerns, interruptions, and death. …

Correlates of the MMPI-A Immaturity (IMM) Scale in an Adolescent Psychiatric Sample

The Immaturity ( IMM) scale was developed for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) to provide an objective measure of ego development or maturation. The present study examines the concurrent validity of the IMM scale based on a residential treatment sample of 66 adolescents, ages 13 through 18 years. Participants were administered the MMPI-A, the Defining Issues Test (DIT), a short form of the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT), the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status-2nd Revision (EOM-EIS-2), and standardized measures of intelligence and reading ability. The results of this study provide evidence of the concurrent validity of the IMM scale, and a number of correlate descriptors are reported for the IMM scale.