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May 16, 1983. THE ETERNAL STRUGGLE WITH REALITY. (Freud Anniversary Lecture.) Alan J. Eisnitz, M.D.
Dr. Eisnitz stated that our view of reality is distorted if we do not have an accurate view of our strengths and limitations. To attain this realistic view, we must in part give up and in part integrate our illusions of omnipotence and the underlying illusions of union with, or control over, an omnipotent parental object. These fantasies must be replaced by internalized structures both for self-evaluation and for reality evaluation. As reliance upon illusions of omnipotence is relinquished, both mankind and the individual increase their capacity to deal with reality effectively.
Following Freud's interest in Moses, Dr. Eisnitz developed his thesis largely through a psychoanalytic scrutiny of Moses' special and changing relationship with the God of the Hebrews in the Exodus. An earlier Biblical separation, the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, was also examined by Dr. Eisnitz for its contribution to his thesis. He approached these Biblical events as metaphors paralleling the emotional development of the human race and the individual. Dr. Eisnitz stressed the importance in individual development of the capacity to recognize that all experience and perception is not encompassed by the self, that there are others and an