EGO Movement and Identification

Ego movement is a subject I have not found discussed. The psychoanalytic view is that the Ego is a “substructure of personality defined by its functions” (17), and among these functions is the organization and control of motility (9, 12, 17, 28). Now an Ego which is made up of functions could not have motility. It would control, organize, synthesize, or inhibit movement as a mastermind within the mind.

No analyst has made a complete list of all the Ego does, nor has any shown a clear or unambiguous idea of what the Ego is. By defining the Ego in vague and contradictory manner, an illusion of scientific progress is created, but one can see that this is a method of lifting by bootstraps. What the Ego explains must ultimately require explanation of the Ego. One analyst who has written with critical insight on this point is Masserman (32, 33).

When I first wondered if the Ego moves—it not being altogether obvious that it does—it became apparent that while the psychoanalyst might regard the question as irrelevant, according to the linguistic concept I suggested in previous papers (23, 24), where the Ego was defined more simply as the linguistic “I”, it obviously does move because nothing is more universal and common than statements to the effect that “I move.” Here then was an opportunity to further test the validity of a non-analytic Ego concept.

The inclusion in this paper of identification as a main topic with Ego motility resulted from the essential part which identification has in Ego movement. It became necessary to undertake a short analysis of the types of identification in order to get an idea of the scope of Ego movement. I have also commented on the nature of introjection and projection. My contention is that these phenomena, which have been prominent in analytical psychology, cannot be further understood until Ego orientation is clarified and improved.

Perception of Movement

Being a psychiatrist I do not pretend a mastery of the technical literature on