Ego Distortion in Terms of True and False Self (1960)

Abstract

Clinical experience in adult psychiatry can have the effect on a psychoanalyst of placing a gap between his assessment of a clinical state and his understanding of its aetiology. A True Self begins to have life, through the strength given to the infant’s weak ego by the mother’s implementation of the infant’s omnipotent expressions. One development in psycho-analysis has been the increasing use of the concept of the False Self. This concept carries with it the idea of a True Self. Periodically the infant’s gesture gives expression to a spontaneous impulse; the source of the gesture is the The False Self has one positive and very important function: to hide the True Self, which it does by compliance with environmental demands. True Self is the theoretical position from which come the spontaneous gesture and the personal idea. The spontaneous gesture is the True Self in action. Only the True Self can be creative and the True Self can feel real.

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