In a broadly conceived panorama, the author traces the development of North American ego psychology, from its almost unchallenged dominant position (largely sustained by the first generation of psychoanalysts immigrating from Europe), up to the early 1970s, to the collapse of its hegemony—due partly to the impact of Kohut's self psychology, as well as ego psychology's ultimate status as one approach among many in a highly pluralistic psychoanalytic landscape. The developments and internal transformations of ego psychology sketched by the author provide at the same time a graphic outline of present-day psychoanalysis in the American mold.