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Ackerman expounds his concept of the 'social role' as the operation of the 'social self' in contrast to the inner self. The social role is like a semipermeable membrane between the organism and the environment, permitting interchanges between these elements. Defects in the social role are of importance in neuroses and psychopathic behavior.
Psychoanalytic technique, as traditionally employed, does not permit the adequate study or treatment of disorders of the social role. Through emphasis on shedding of the ego, the functions of the social self tend to be excluded; the relation of the patient to the analyst is not a form of social intercourse, for the personality of the latter must remain illusory to the analysand.
The analytic technique can be used, however, with greater emphasis on an exact knowledge of the patient's social milieu, his participation in group life, and a systematic study of character adaptation to the environment so as to do greater justice to the social role. Group therapy, in particular, provides a natural access to vicissitudes of ego function which must be worked through if the deeper conflicts are to be solved.