The significance of the conscious ego in the interpretive process has increasingly come under scrutiny. It is becoming clearer that the analyst's view of the conscious ego orients his interpretive approach, and subtly sets the goals of the analysis. At various times Freud championed the analytic importance of the conscious ego, and alternately rejected its significance. Hartmann's view of the ego stimulated research into a developmental line of the ego, while investigations of the ego in clinical psychoanalysis lagged far behind. The importance of the conscious ego in understanding resistances and levels of communication are explored.