Meetings of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

DISCUSSION. Dr. David Beres expressed the opinion that 'body ego' and 'pre-body ego' are ambiguous and unsatisfactory concepts. He prefers to speak of the ego's functions of self-representation, self-awareness, awareness of the body and its parts, i.e., the body image. He agreed that there probably exist certain primitive thought processes before the ego has developed the capacity to recognize the self, to separate self and nonself, and to form object relationships. Dr. Gustav Bychowski mentioned examples in adult schizophrenic patients of fear of uncontrolled motility and the projection of the aggressive impulse involved as a defense against the anxiety. Dr. Bela Mittelmann characterized this developmental period by the absence of differentiation, rather than by a coexistence of contradictions. He suggested that the tongue very early in life has two functions. Sucking provides pleasure; its searching movements (for objects) is the inception of ego function. Dr. Robert Bak expressed the belief that there are physiological models for psychic mechanisms, and called attention to the importance of regression to temperature and olfactory orientation in schizophrenia. It is in these archaic developmental phases that the fusion between self and nonself occurs. He agreed that a hypercathexis of the tongue can be either a regression from the phallic phase or an original hypercathexis; the alternative is especially likely in cases of oral deprivation in infancy. In the development of a transitional object or the development of the transition between the whole body and the body of the object there can be a phase in which the nipple and the tongue coalesce. We should aim at a more precise differentiation between ego functions and especially their interrelationships. Under certain circumstances damaged functions may combine with normally developed functions to produce new formations. This can lead to results which cannot be simply understood retrogressively.