Journal of the American Psycho-Analytic Association 5, 1957, No. 1 (Concluded): Karwin, L. 'Notes on the Concept of Self-Representation.'

The purpose of this paper is first to show the usefulness of the concept of self-representation proposed by Hartmann and Jacobson, and second, to indicate the value of regarding self-representations as positive and negative nuclei during the early phase of ego development. A third aim is to stress the fact that normal ego function is essential for the repression of primitive negative self-representations.

The primitive nuclei of the self-representations are formed as a result of the pleasure-pain experiences in object relationships. There are four such nuclei—positive and negative self and object representations. The negative representations will be magnified by self-directed aggression. The author believes that the concept of ambivalence can be better understood if the structure of the early ego is thought of in terms of positive and negative self-representations. Perception of objects and the external world proceeds from and is influenced by these self-representations. Accordingly, ambivalence would be the interrelationships between the positive and negative representations of the self and objects, with alternation of the feelings with which these representations are cathected.