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THE PIONEERS of psychoanalysis, among whom Heinz Hartmann is an outstanding figure, have been known at all times to wage war on more than one front. As uncompromising representatives of a new discipline, they inevitably find themselves in opposition to the academic and clinical departments in which they have grown up. As innovators and explorers in their chosen field, they cannot help incurring the distrust and misgivings of their new colleagues. If, like Hartmann, they simultaneously stand firm on all the valued and tested acquisitions of psychoanalysis, they expose themselves also to the reproach of "orthodoxy" from the side of the more extreme of the analytic revolutionaries. It is only on rare occasions, such as anniversary celebrations, that the dissenting voices recede into the background and make room for universal acclaim and an adequate evaluation of their role within the fabric of the analytic movement and the growth and development of analytic theory.
In spite of this precarious position at the top of a profession, Heinz Hartmann, in his teaching activities and publications, seems to have completely disregarded or even remained oblivious to the battle which was staged around him. In the place of polemics, criticism of fellow workers, or bids to win approval, there is only the author's deep immersion into the problems which engage his own interest and for which he tries to gain the students', the readers', or the audiences' attention.
The range and sequence of these topics and their bearing on the structure of psychoanalysis as a whole are well known by now. From the narrower conception of the ego as the seat of anxiety, conflict, and defense, Hartmann moved to the ego's conflict-free sphere, that is, from what had been taken so far as the only truly