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.
DISCUSSION: Dr. Nathan Root felt that the acting out described in the two patients represented maladaptation and inappropriate actions which restricted and distorted rather than aided the progressive development. He felt that the acting out required analytic intervention in order to promote working through.
Dr. Leo Spiegel also doubted that repetitious acting out could serve ego synthesis. He felt that too often acting out is confused with a proclivity for action. The proclivity for action in adolescence is misunderstood when it is incorrectly evaluated in terms of adult standards.
Dr. Edith Jacobson agreed with Dr. Blos that an increase in narcissism was a determinant of the adolescent's propensity for acting out. It was her impression, however, that the narcissism of adolescence did not result in ego impoverishment, but rather created a vacillation between periods of ego impoverishment and ego enrichment. Dr. Jacobson stated that a concept which differentiated acting out in the service of the id from acting out in the service of the ego would be useful in determining the orientation of therapy. With the first