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Psychoanalytic theory has had a pervasive influence on clinical, cognitive, developmental and social research. Numerous theoretical models in psychology (e.g., stage theories of development, models of social cognition and social information processing, cognitive models of mental representations and semantic networks) are rooted in psychoanalytic concepts. Although psychoanalytic theory has long influenced research in other areas of psychology, it is only within the past 30 years or so that psychoanalytic theorists have begun to incorporate concepts and findings from other areas of psychology into the psychoanalytic framework. Psychoanalysis has been enriched immeasurably by the integration of ideas from various domains into psychoanalytic drive theory and object relations theory. One of the most important tasks facing psychoanalytic psychologists in the 21st century will be to further integrate psychodynamic concepts with concepts from other areas within and outside psychology.
Greenspan's The Development of the Ego represents, first and foremost, an attempt to integrate psychoanalytic concepts with ideas and findings from developmental psychology. In particular, Greenspan's work bridges the gap between studies of infant and early childhood development (both normal and pathological), and psychoanalytic notions regarding the development of the ego and the self-concept. In a sense, Greenspan's work represents an extension of Mahler's classic work on the emergence of the ego and the self-concept in infancy (Mahler, 1967; Mahler, Pine, & Bergman, 1975). In addition, Greenspan's work has roots in Spitz's (1965) ideas, as well as those of Kernberg (1975), Kohut (1971) and others.