The Effect of Disappointment on Ego and Super-Ego Formation in Normal and Depressive Development

This article will continue the discussion of problems approached in a previous report on the infantile history of a depressive patient. The experience of disappointment will be subjected to a closer investigation with regard to its effect on the building up of the ego and super-ego of the child in normal and in depressive development.

Disappointment is an experience which comes about when promises and expectations of gratification from an object are not fulfilled. The German word for disappointment differs in its etymological derivation from the English term. Disappointment equals “Enttäuschung” which in English means disillusion. Its connotation suggests that the concept of the disappointing object turns out to be false, illusionary. Consequently, the painful breakdown of expectations of an object unleashes hostile reactions towards it. They lead to a critical revision of its concept, possibly to its devaluation, with resulting withdrawal of libido from the object. This critical revision of the illusionary concept of a disappointing object is an essential element in the infantile experience of disappointment with regard to its reflection on the ego of the child.

Oral frustration, in particular the state of severe and lasting hunger, seems to be the earliest forerunner of profound disappointment such as comes about later by being hit by the loss of a most valuable object. In a state of severe disappointment one finds the feeling of blank, empty hopelessness, of nothingness, often accompanied by the sensation of physical emptiness which certainly goes