The Ego Revisited

Abstract

The ego as a construct in humanistic and transpersonal psychology has a turbulent history. Early efforts to distinguish transpersonal theories from the reductionism of Freudian drive psychology tended to eschew psychoanalytic views altogether, including theories on the development of the ego as an intrapsychic structure. In the last decade, transpersonal theorists have began to recognize and integrate the important contributions of American ego psychology and object relations theory toward an understanding of prestructural or "prepersonal" difficulties. In this article, updating the view from psychoanalysis, the seminal contribution of Heinz Kohut's self psychology is placed in the context of this expanded spectrum of development. The fundamental quest of the grandiose aspect of self for affirmative mirroring is examined in both its progressive and regressive dimensions; similarly, idealization is examined with respect to the archaic, mature, and-potentially-transcendent functions it may serve. Finally, while recognizing the complex interweave of prepersonal, personal, and transpersonal dimensions of narcissism, the usefulness of various meditation practices adapted to the client's structural organization is examined. Comprehensive approaches to development that simultaneously support the effective organization of self-experience while enhancing individual tolerance for experiences of insubstantiality and impermanence seem to offer the most promising synthesis of perspectives on human nature across many rich traditions.