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The fundamental assumptions on which ego psychology rests were formulated by Freud in the early 1920's, when his new formulation of anxiety compelled a revision of many earlier views. Kris reviews the stages of Freud's work after more than fifty years of development.
Freud's first assumption in turning his interest to psychotherapy was of a connection between mental conflict and mental illness. He based his first views on neurophysiological assumptions, which he designated as 'the law of constancy', the tendency of the central nervous system to keep energy tensions constant. This law permitted Freud to formulate his assumptions on the interaction of conflict, mounting tension, defense (repression) and abreaction in hysteria. In the nineties, Freud was engaged on a treatise on general psychology and psychopathology, in which he attempted to replace psychological by neurophysiological assumptions. Later, he defined the id, ego and superego in the same manner in which physiological organ systems are defined, in terms of their functions. Freud sometimes used the term ego to describe the total personality, the self; at other times, to define an organization. Such inconsistences showed his constant attempt to unify explanatory concepts and at the same time adapt theoretical assumptions to the needs and findings of the clinician. In his early neurological drafts, Freud spoke of ego neurons and an ego organization; when this did not work out, the concept of an ego organization dropped out of his writing for two decades, and the concept of defense lost its dominant position. Of the defenses which he described early, repression especially attracted his attention. This interest led to his great discoveries concerning the role of early experiences, the discovery of infantile sexuality, the interpretation of dreams, and insight into the mechanisms of the neuroses and perversions, including fixation and regression. His interest at this time turned to the id, although it