The Matrix of the Mind by Thomas H. Ogden

Author:Thomas H. Ogden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.
Published: 1990-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Freud thus proposes a model wherein an external object is “by identification . . . taken into the ego.” He goes on to explain that taking the object into the ego involves establishing “a new psychical agency,” i.e., an aspect of personality that has the capacity to carry on functions in the internal world previously performed in the external world by the object. This new agency stands in relation to the ego and can perceive, think, respond, and initiate activity. Further, it has its own system of motivations: “it observes the ego, gives it orders, judges it and threatens it with punishments.” Freud is here describing a normal developmental sequence wherein the child, in the context of his relations with external objects, establishes a suborganization of ego that has the capacity for independent motivation and carries on an object relationship with other aspects of the ego.

Freud’s “Fetishism” (1927) and “Splitting of the Ego in the Process of Defense” (1940b) invoke the concept of a split in the ego3 to account for the way in which one can know and not know at the same time. In other words, the ego can be defensively divided so as to operate on the basis of different types of understanding of reality. This represents both a clarification of the process of ego splitting involved in superego formation and an extension of the idea to account for internal division within the personality, other than that involved in superego formation.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.