This article reviews and critiques the ego concept. Except for the modern conflict theorists, most schools of contemporary psychoanalytic thought tend to eschew metapsychology and the concept of the ego. The author reviews modern conflict theory and the functions of metapsychology and the ego. Conflict theorists assert that their approach bears little resemblance to Freud's drive reduction model. Current theory focuses on conflict, bodily urges, unconscious fantasy, and defense but also views developmental issues, reality pressures, and interpersonal interactions as important. The author argues that conflict theorists incorporate the old metabiology into their formulations. He uses evidence from evolutionary biology, psychological science, and systems theory to suggest that the ego be viewed as a self-generating process, functioning within evolutionary constraints and capable of reacting to contingent circumstances in a selfenhancing fashion. Finally, he discusses the implications of this view on the clinical controversies surrounding the role and function of neutrality.
G. Frank (2007) maintained that if psychoanalysts are to renew their interest in an archaic concept like the ego, 3 criticisms must be addressed: reification of the ego, the problem of impersonality, and the problem of the ego's evolution from the id. The author addresses these criticisms directly and from within the context of an updated view of the ego as rooted in contemporary biological and psychological science. He also comments on the place of the psychoanalytic ego in the postmodern era.
Clinicians believe that increased self-awareness is synonymous with successful therapeutic outcome, and the reduction of self-deception is viewed as evidence of meaningful personality change. Despite this, no empirical work has been done on measuring the change in self-deceptive tendencies over the course of psychotherapy. The present investigation is an analogue study on the relationship between self-awareness enhancing psychotherapy and its effect on client self-deception and mental health. One hundred and twenty junior college students participated in the investigation. Self-awareness training was found to have no effect on self-deception levels, but a positive effect on mental health scores. The results suggest that self-examination and the reduction of self-deception may not always be desirable or possible in therapy.In the clinical writings, authors have repeatedly stressed the importance of selfawareness and have viewed the reduction of self-deception as an indicator of successful therapeutic outcome. In the experimental literature, awareness and self-consciousness have also been studied, and the findings suggest that selffocusing is frequently aversive, leading to physiological arousal, intrapsychic distress and lowered self-esteem. In this article a review of the literature will be presented on the various psychodynamic positions noted in the clinical literature, followed by a review of the experimental fmdings on self-consciousness and its influence on self-functioning. I will also discuss the literature on the investigation and conceptual delineation of the concept of self-deception, and then present data which empirically examines the influence of self-awareness training on self-deception and mental health. 83
The ego psychological approach to understanding mental life has evolved considerably since Freud created the discipline of psychoanalysis in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Contemporary ego psychologists have a different theoretical and clinical perspective than did Freud or early psychoanalytic theorists. As in all areas of scholarship and clinical practice, ego psychologists have evolved in their understanding of motivation and behavior and have integrated new findings from psychoanalytic practice and research, and from the cognate disciplines. This article relates the early theory of psychoanalysis and ego psychology and then presents its more contemporary edition, referred to as modern conflict theory or modern structural theory.
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