"Given the constant shifting of theoretical framework and of clinical focus … it is no wonder that the literature on splitting stands in some disarray." With that beginning Lustman attempts the ambitious task of reworking the conceptual basis for the term "splitting." He proposes "minimal criteria" to specify the cognitive, functional, and developmental characteristics of the ego: 1) functional—a hierarchical and epigenetic view of all evolving stages of mental capacities from the lowest perceptual and sensorimotor substrate capacities to the highest executive and integrative functions; 2) content attributes—as distinct from functions, these