Some Notes on Hartmann's Ego Psychology and the Psychology of the Self

The present contribution is an extension of previous efforts to bring into focus a more comprehensive psychology of the self that can be meaningfully articulated with existing psychoanalytic metapsychology (Meissner, 1981a, 1981b, 1983, 1986). Previous contributions have focused on the clinical phenomenology of the self (Meissner, 1981), and on the potential conceptual integration of a self concept within the structural theory (Meissner, 1983, 1986).

The term self psychology has been taken captive by the adherents to the views of Heinz Kohut (1966, 1977). I have argued elsewhere (Meissner, 1981) that the resulting psychology of the self is largely embedded in and interpreted in terms of narcissistic dynamics, and that such an approach to the psychology of the self is excessively restrictive and narrow. In my view, a psychology of the self involves more than merely the vicissitudes of narcissism; a more amplified view of the self, which embraces structural and instinctual vicissitudes beyond the confines of narcissism, offers much greater promise for a theoretical development that can more usefully be integrated with existing psychoanalytic views.

In fact, I am impressed that, prior to the emergence of the