The Ego in Health and Normality

It would, perhaps, be somewhat fulsome to label as monumental the collection of volumes which provides the basis for this essay (Erikson, 1964); (Glover, 1968); (Hartmann, 1964); (Jacobson, 1964); (Loewenstein, 1964); (Modell, 1968); (White, 1963); but it would be much more difficult to deny that—as a collection—these books represent an imposing and influential body of psychoanalytic writing. The names of the authors and contributors are among the most illustrious and respected in our literature; and the topics which are covered would seem to approach all of the crucial theoretical issues which engage us as psychoanalysts. Although the chief focus of most of the work centers on the ego and on ego psychology, there is in fact little pertaining to human behavior and its vicissitudes which is not at least touched on by the various authors. There are contributions on the psychological aspects of the very earliest periods of development, on the psychological aspects of old age; on genetics and physiology, and on some of the most esoteric aspects of ego psychology; there is material on the "normal personality," on the pathology and treatment of schizophrenia; contributions on the psychological aspects of ethics and "virtue," and a number of excellent pieces of psychological biography. Neither id nor superego is neglected; and all the metapsychological points of view are amply represented. The breadth and diversity of the subject matter contained in these works is, by itself, an impressive argument for the concept of a general psychoanalytic psychology.

When the editors of the Hartmann Festschrift entitled it Psychoanalysis—A General Psychology(Loewenstein et al., 1966). I do not believe that they intended to imply that psychoanalysis has already achieved that status or that even all the blueprints for such a model were already available. It seems to me—and I trust that the editors, as well as Hartmann, would agree—that what we have at this time is an "idea" and a di