Max and His Diaper: An Example of the Interplay of Arrests in Psychosexual Development and the Separation-Individuation Process

In the past 50 years, psychoanalytic theory building has maintained the momentum of creative growth, self-scrutiny, and integration that Freud set in motion during his lifetime. In its expansion it has branched into several directions, some complementary to Freud's fundamental theories, and others taking divergent paths. In this paper, I address an area of theory building that is congruent with Freud's legacy and demonstrate through a case presentation its impact on the treatment technique.

Beginning with Heinz Hartmann, a number of classically trained analysts focused much of their interest and research on the study of normal early development. Although generally known as “ego psychologists,” these theorists were equally interested in ego and object; in fact the essence of their work was studying the functioning of the ego as it unfolds within the environment provided by its early objects. Heinz Hartmann, Anna Freud, René Spitz, Edith Jacobson, and Margaret Mahler are some of the outstanding members of this group of psychoanalysts who remained faithful to classical theory while promoting its growth and evolution. Their contributions have clarified some of the hazy areas that Freud identified