Editing Psychoanalysis (section)

=== Ego psychology ===
[[Ego psychology]] was initially suggested by Freud in ''Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety'' (1926),<ref name="Freud 1926" /> while major steps forward would be made through [[Anna Freud]]'s work on [[defense mechanisms]], first published in her book ''The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence'' (1936).<ref name="Freud 1937" />

The theory was refined by [[Heinz Hartmann|Hartmann]], Loewenstein, and Kris in a series of papers and books from 1939 through the late 1960s. Leo Bellak was a later contributor. This series of constructs, paralleling some of the later developments of cognitive theory, includes the notions of autonomous ego functions: mental functions not dependent, at least in origin, on intrapsychic conflict. Such functions include: sensory perception, motor control, symbolic thought, logical thought, speech, abstraction, integration (synthesis), orientation, concentration, judgment about danger, reality testing, adaptive ability, executive decision-making, hygiene, and self-preservation. Freud noted that inhibition is one method that the mind may utilize to interfere with any of these functions in order to avoid painful emotions. Hartmann (1950s) pointed out that there may be delays or deficits in such functions.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hartmann|first=Heinz|title=Essays on Ego Psychology Selected Problems in Psychoanalytic Theory}}</ref>

Frosch (1964) described differences in those people who demonstrated damage to their relationship to reality, but who seemed able to test it.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Frosch|first=John|date=1964|title=The psychotic character: Clinical psychiatric considerations|journal=The Psychiatric Quarterly|volume=38|issue=1–4|pages=81–96|doi=10.1007/bf01573368|pmid=14148396|s2cid=9097652|issn=0033-2720}}</ref>

According to ego psychology, ego strengths, later described by [[Otto F. Kernberg]] (1975), include the capacities to control oral, sexual, and destructive impulses; to tolerate painful affects without falling apart; and to prevent the eruption into consciousness of bizarre symbolic fantasy.<ref>[[Otto F. Kernberg|Kernberg, Otto]]. 1975. ''Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism''. New York: [[Jason Aronson]].</ref> Synthetic functions, in contrast to autonomous functions, arise from the development of the ego and serve the purpose of managing conflict processes. Defenses are synthetic functions that protect the conscious mind from awareness of forbidden impulses and thoughts. One purpose of ego psychology has been to emphasize that some mental functions can be considered to be basic, rather than derivatives of wishes, affects, or defenses. However, autonomous ego functions can be secondarily affected because of unconscious conflict.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hauser |first1=S. |title=International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences |chapter=Ego Psychology and Psychoanalysis |date=1 January 2001 |pages=4365–4369 |doi=10.1016/B0-08-043076-7/00393-4|isbn=978-0-08-043076-8 }}</ref> For example, a patient may have an hysterical amnesia (memory being an autonomous function) because of intrapsychic conflict (wishing not to remember because it is too painful).

Taken together, the above theories present a group of [[Metapsychology|metapsychological]] assumptions. Therefore, the inclusive group of the different classical theories provides a cross-sectional view of human mental processes. There are six "points of view", five described by Freud and a sixth added by Hartmann. Unconscious processes can therefore be evaluated from each of these six points of view:<ref>Rapaport, Gill. 1959. "The Points of View and Assumptions of Metapsychology." ''[[The International Journal of Psychoanalysis]]'' 40: 153–62. {{PMID|14436240}}.</ref>

# Topographic
# Dynamic (the theory of conflict)
# Economic (the theory of energy flow)
# Structural
# Genetic (i.e. propositions concerning origin and development of psychological functions)
# Adaptational (i.e. psychological phenomena as it relates to the external world)

====Modern conflict theory====
''Modern conflict theory'', a variation of [[ego psychology]], is a revised version of structural theory, most notably different by altering concepts related to where repressed thoughts were stored.<ref name="Freud 1923" /><ref name="Freud 1926" /> Modern conflict theory addresses emotional symptoms and character traits as complex solutions to mental conflict.<ref>[[Charles Brenner (psychiatrist)|Brenner, Charles]]. 2006. "Psychoanalysis: Mind and Meaning." ''[[The Psychoanalytic Quarterly|Psychoanalytic Quarterly]].''</ref> It dispenses with the concepts of a fixed [[id, ego and superego]], and instead posits conscious and unconscious conflict among wishes (dependent, controlling, sexual, and aggressive), guilt and shame, emotions (especially anxiety and depressive affect), and defensive operations that shut off from consciousness some aspect of the others. Moreover, healthy functioning (adaptive) is also determined, to a great extent, by resolutions of conflict.

A major objective of modern conflict-theory psychoanalysis is to change the balance of conflict in a patient by making aspects of the less adaptive solutions (also called "compromise formations") conscious so that they can be rethought, and more adaptive solutions found. Current theoreticians who follow the work of [[Charles Brenner (psychiatrist)|Charles Brenner]], especially ''The Mind in Conflict'' (1982), include Sandor Abend,<ref>Abend, Sandor, Porder, and Willick. 1983. ''Borderline Patients: Clinical Perspectives''.</ref> [[Jacob Arlow]],<ref>[[Jacob Arlow|Arlow, Jacob]] and [[Charles Brenner (psychiatrist)|Charles Brenner]]. 1964. ''Psychoanalytic Concepts and the Structural Theory''.</ref> and Jerome Blackman.<ref name="Blackman">Blackman, Jerome. 2003. ''101 Defenses: How the Mind Shields Itself''.</ref>