Ego-Distortion, Cumulative Trauma and the Role of Reconstruction in the Analytic Situation

Abstract

Reconstruction of the genetic data has been the prime concern of the clinical analytic situation. In the past two decades researches in ego-psychology and infant-care techniques have enabled us to reevaluate the role of the environmental factor in a truer perspective vis-à-vis early ego-formation and character structure. This chapter discusses some aspects of the clinical reconstruction of this environmental factor and its significance for the patient’s personality structure, through the analytic process in the analytic setting. Reconstructions in the clinical analytic situation can be divided into four groups: reconstructions of the history of defence mechanisms over the developmental span; reconstructions of the critical phases of psycho-sexual growth and the establishment of the three mental structures: ego, superego, and id; reconstruction of the patient’s specific relationship with his parents from the pre-oedipal and oedipal periods with their attendant introjections and identifications; reconstruction of the ecology of the patient’s early phases of personalization, ego-integration, and ego-modifications.

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