Gertrude Blanck – författare

In Ego Psychology II, Gertrude and Rubin Blanck elaborate upon ego psychological theory, extending and broadening it into a psychoanalytic developmental psychology. They present the unifying proposal, derived from Freud's concept of an overall ego (the Gesamt Ich), that the ego is the organizing process itself. Out of this basic proposition, a holistic conception of psychological development evolves. Within the developmental framework established in Ego Psychology II symptom constellation is shown to be unreliable as a guide to diagnosis. A diagram of development is presented to convey that overall development rather than symptomatology provides guidelines for secure diagnosis and suggests how treatment is to be carried out. Treatment, in the form of ego-building techniques, evolves from recognition that developmental inadequacies cause pathological formations that become malformations in the structure. Ego Psychology II is valuable for psychotherapists, psychologists, psychoanalysts and social workers: the authors' extensive case-study material illustrates the theroy and technique of developmental psychology in vivid form.The authors show also how psychoanalytic developmental psychology updates drive theory, sheds new light on transference, redefines resistance and defense in the poorly structured personalities, clarifies the pathology of the borderline conditions of narcissism, and suggests reconsideration of the manner in which many neurotic formations are attained.

In this, the third volume in the acclaimed series on ego psychology, Rubin and Gertrude Blanck advance ego psychology beyond its position as a psychoanalytic developmental psychology, and present a developmental object relations theory. In Beyond Ego Psychololgy: Developmental Object Relations Theory the authors remain, as always, firmly rooted in psychoanalytic theory while elaborating upon it. While their earlier work integrated the structural theory with the ego psychology that flowed from it, here they have extended Freud's concept of the Gesamt Ich, the ego as a whole, which they describe as superordinate to the ego of structure. Their work is distinctive because they add new dimensions to theory construction without discarding such basics as drive theory and conflict theory. This new volume revives Freud's thoughts about object realations, and adds developmental theory to provide an integrated object relations theory. Object relations, the Blancks propose, arise out of the interaction between self and object representations and can be defined as the resultants of that interaction.Extended also are the concept of transference, the manner in which the Oedipus Complex is resolved, and the technique of the termination process. Beyond Ego Psychology will be welcomed by readers of the first two books in this series, by psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers, and by a broad readership of professors and students in psychology, social work, and medicine.

This best seller breaks new ground by demonstrating how mainstream psychoanalytic theory has evolved into a psychoanalytic developmental object relations theory. The authors summarize the contributions of the major ego psychologists from Freud to the contemporary theorists, including the new findings of the child observationalists. By integrating these several contributions, the authors are able to show that classical psychoanalysis and ego psychology combine to form a unified theory that provides a more profound understanding of the borderline and narcissistic conditions as well as of the neuroses. From this comprehensive synthesis of theory the authors derive techniques for the treatment of the more troubled patient and expand the classical technique for the psychoanalysis of neurosis. Recognizing that there are preoedipal developmental problems even in neurotic patients and that there are oedipal issues in the borderline and narcissistic patients, the authors demonstrate the applicability of developmental object realtions theory across the diagnostic spectrum and include a new chapter on termination.Using numerous case illustrations from their own practice, the Blancks have constructed an extraordinarily comprehensive and readable text that updates psychoanalytic theory for the nineties.