Heinz Hartmann, Ego Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation (1939) Chapter 1, the Conflict-Free Ego Sphere - the

problem of adaptation - defense mechanisms are not just defenses against threats but also has reality-oriented and adaptation-facilitating characteristics and regulations. 15 - there is an autonomous intelligence factor which, as an independent variable, codetermines the choice and success of the defensive process. 14 - More generally, we are interested in what manner and to what extent is defense indirectly regulated by those ego functions which are not currently involved in the conflict. 15 - memory, associations, and so on, are functions which cannot possible be derived from the egos relationships to instinctual drives or love-objects, but are rather prerequisites of our conception of these and of their development. These are functions that exist from the beginning of life. 15 - will examine not only effect of defense on ego and the instinctual drive being fought against, but also into its effects on the ego functions not directly involved in the conflict. 15 - moving away from the borderland of the ego which is involved in the conflict. Military analogy 15 - determining objectively those factors of ability, character, will, etc. which are the empiricalnot theoreticalcorrelates of strong or weak egos. 16 - the interaction of the conflict-sphere with other ego functions. 16 - relationship between fantasy and eidetic endowment 17 - fantasy talent for making new combinations symbolic, pictorial thought can be fruitful even in scientific thinking, supposedly the undisputed domain of rational thought. 18 - knowledge of reality is not synonymous with adaptation to reality. 19 - positive in psych means both neurosis prevention and general furtherance of adaptation 19 - analysis is not expected to free man of all passions. affectivity as important for organizing and facilitating many ego functions it is an impetus for mastering reality. 20 - the conflict-free ego sphere must be included in our studies 20 - We hold that psychonalysis is one of the basic sciences of sociology. 20 - sociology interested in social action and achievementonly indirectly [studies] how [the mental apparatus] masters its difficulties. For Psychology, on the other hand, both conflict and achievement are indispensable points of view. 21 - opening up the no-mans land between sociology and psychoanalysis. 21 - defense apparatus may also change its function from a means into a goal in its own right. 26 - 3 forms of adaptation: alloplastic (changing the environment, adapting it to human functions, e.g. use of tools, technology), autoplastic, and choosing a new environment altogether. 26-27 - individual vs collective (species or otherwise) adaptation 27 - For Freud, the conditions for psychic development are mainly 3: the prolonged

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helplessness and dependence of the human cild, the latency period, and the fact that the ego must treat certain instinctual drives as dangers. 28 - what is the latency period? - importance for adaptation not only of constitution [biological] and external environment, but also of tradition: We take over from others.. a great many of our methods for solving problems man lives, so to speak, in past generations as well as in his own. 30 - the task of man to adapt to man 31 - social compliance to structure of society the process of division of labor and the social locus of the individual. 31 - attempt to escape ethnocentrism and Eurocentrism: individual propensities which amount to disturbances of adaptation in one social group of locus may fulfill a socially essential function in another. 32 - by adaptation we do not mean only passive submission ot the goals of a society, but also active collaboration on them and attempts to change them. 32 - Freud as uniting biological and sociological points of view. 32 - adaptation here as normalization, subjectification, habitus formation - adaptation can be progressive or regressive no linear development, and in fact sometimes regression is a required detour for the healthy achievement of adaptation - regression in the service of the ego 37 - disruption and reestablishing equilibrium 38 - it is not that every process in the organism must subserve the individuals survival theory of death instinct for instance like power creating conditions for its own realignment. 38 - reality principlie: the function of anticipating the future. 43 - modes of behavior and pleasure potentialities. 43 - the reality principle in the broader sense involves the requirements for the survival of the species and the needs of self-preservation. This is the reality principle that precedes the pleasure principle and outranks it hierarchically. Contrasted with reality principle in the narrow sense. 44 -

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