EGO Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation - Hardcover

Hartmann, Heinz

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9780823616008: EGO Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0823616002 ISBN 13: 9780823616008

Publisher: International Universities Press, 1964

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This is the first full English translation (by David Rapaport) of a classic essay representing a turning point in the development of psychoanalytic ego psychology. Hartmann attempts to stake out the field of ego psychology in its broadest sense. He introduces here the concepts of the undifferentiated phase, conflict-free ego development and conflict-free ego sphere, primary and secondary autonomy. He discusses the role of endowment and inborn ego apparatuses, and the fact that there is a certain pre-adaptedness to the environment even in the human. Hence, defenses may simultaneously serve the control of instinctual drives as a well as adaptation to the external world. Hartmann also discusses the implications of his theories for the development of perception and thought processes, and for the concepts of ego strength and ego weakness, and the concept of normality.

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