You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Weiss begins by emphasizing that though the subject of this paper is Federn's contributions to ego psychology—his most extensive and original works—these are only a part of his total contributions to other phases of psychoanalysis and allied fields.
The ego can be studied dynamically, economically, and topographically. With normal functioning one is unaware of the ego; slight disturbances are normal and subside unobserved. Federn postulated the existence of a specific ego cathexis to account both for the fluctuating intensity of ego feelings and for the energy required for the various ego mechanisms. This cathexis is a compound of libido and mortido and is only part of the total cathexis of the individual. The ego is described as an experience, as the sensation and knowledge by the individual of the continuity of his total life felt as a unit.
Federn made a clear-cut distinction between bodily and mental egos. First there is only mental ego. Later there is a body ego of the whole physical world which still later excludes parts of the external world. These parts become objects.
Federn limited primary narcissism to the original manifestation of ego libido, a neutral objectless form of cathexis called the 'medial cathexis' which he felt was the source of the ego's sense of gratification in its very existence. This concept is a little more restricted than Freud's. If the libidinal part of the medial cathexis is withdrawn or is not in sufficient supply, the result is a feeling of disagreeable change. If the destructive part becomes predominant, as seen in depressive states, the result is an inability to enjoy anything.
One of Federn's most important concepts was the idea of an ego boundary as the peripheral sense organ of the ego. Like the ego itself we are not ordinarily conscious of this dividing line between 'inner mentality' and 'outer reality'. A sense of unreality in regard to external objects is seen in certain ego disturbances even when the perception thr