The Ego Ideal: Pathology and Resource

Journal title PSICOANALISI
Author/s Simona Argentieri
Publishing Year 2021 Issue 2020/2 Language Italian
Pages 22 P. 57-78 File size 225 KB
DOI 10.3280/PSI2020-002004
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

In the psychoanalytic literature and in current usage, the concept of the Superego has obtained a much wider theoretical and clinical space than that reserved for the concept of the Ego Ideal. As is well known, these are instances that are configured in the framework of the Freudian elaboration of the second topic of the psychic apparatus, which outlines the organization and consolidation of the structure. However, this paper does not delve into metapsychological disquisitions, to which many great masters have already given their important contribution. Instead, it focuses on clinical reflections on patients, although very different from each other on the psychopathological level, who undergo intense suffering due to a cumbersome and unrealistic Ego Ideal to which they feel unable to adhere. A conflict, very difficult to handle in the transference-countertransference relationship, in which the Ego is both the victim and the agent at the same time. Sometimes, the treatment process trips up over these apparently marginal aspects of the Ego Ideal, which are configured as one of the most tenacious resistances to the psychoanalytic process.

Keywords: Ego Ideal, Superego, narcissism, idealization, limit

  1. Argentieri S. (1999). Violence, Perlaboration et Sublimation. Convegno FEP Berlino Amour, Haine et Violence.
  2. Argentieri S. (2005). Sublimation: un concept théoriquement malaisé et cliniquement ambigu. Rev. Franç. Psychanal. 69: 1689-1693 (trad. it. Sublimazione: un concetto teoricamente scomodo e clinicamente ambiguo. Psicoanalisi, 9, 1).
  3. Argentieri S. (2006). Meccanismi di difesa e livelli precoci. Psicoanalisi, 10, 1: 65-83 (ripubblicato come Defence Mechanism and Very Early levels. In: AA. VV. Reading Italian Psychoanalysis. London: Routledge, 2016, pp. 601-614).
  4. Argentieri S. (2008). L’ambiguità. Torino: Einaudi.
  5. Argentieri S. (2019a). Analisi terminabile e interminabile: dallo “strato roccioso” al riconoscimento del limite. Bergasse 19, 15: 27-37.
  6. Argentieri S. (2019b). Guerre di confine: il limite di sé nella dimensione psicoanalitica. International Conference Italian Psychoanalytical Association (A.I.Psi) Thinking on the border: Internal and external (Rome, 6-9 june 2019), pubblicato in Psicoanalisi, 23, 1: 13-31. DOI: 10.3280/PSI2019-001003
  7. Argentieri S. (2013). La lacrima di narciso. Psicoanalisi 17, 1: 79-106. DOI: 10.3280/PSI2013-001006
  8. Etchegoyen R.H. (1990). I fondamenti della tecnica psicoanalitica. Roma: Astrolabio.
  9. Federici D. (2012). Il gioco dell’analisi. Creatività e responsabilità nella psicoterapia. Forlì: Foschi.
  10. Freud S. (1914). Introduzione al narcisismo. In: OSF, vol. VII. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 1975.
  11. Freud S. (1923). L’Io e l’Es. In: OSF, vol. IX. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 1976.
  12. Gosio N. (2020). Nemici miei. La pervasiva rabbia quotidiana. Torino: Einaudi.
  13. Green A. (1993). La sublimation: du destin de la pulsion sexuelle au service de la pulsion de morte. In: Le travail du négatif. Paris: Editions de Minuit, pp. 289-345.
  14. Green A. (2010). Illusion et désillusion du travail pasichanalytic. Paris: Odile Jacob (trad. it. Illusioni e disillusioni del lavoro psicoanalitico. Milano: Raffaello Cortina, 2011).
  15. Grinberg L., Grinberg R. (1990). Aspetti normali e patologici del Super-Io e dell’Ideale dell’Io. In: Mancia M. (a cura di). Super-Io e Ideale dell’Io. Roma: Astrolabio Ubaldini.
  16. Masud M., Kahn R. (1979). Lo spazio privato del Sé. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri (The Privacy of the Self. Hogarth Press, London, 1974).
  17. Mancia M. (1990) (a cura di). Super-Io e Ideale dell’Io. Roma: Astrolabio Ubaldini.
  18. Mariotti G. (2006). Tra etica e responsabilità. Gli Argonauti, 109: 187-193.
  19. Massermann J. (1953). Faith and Delusion in Psychotherapy: Men’s Ur-Defences. American Journal of Psychiatry, 5: 324-356.
  20. Merot P. (2005). La vergogna, se un altro venisse a saperlo. Psicoanalisi, 9, 2.
  21. Sandler J. et al. (1985). The Analysis of Defence. New York: International University Press.
  22. Sandler J., Holder J., Meers D. (1963). The Ego Ideal and the Ideal Self. Psychanalitic Study of the Child, 18: 139-158.
  23. Szpilka J. (1985). Edipo precoce, effetto retroattivo e conflitto psichico. Rivista di Psicoanalisi, 31, 1: 34-55.

Simona Argentieri, L’Ideale dell’Io: patologia e risorsa in "PSICOANALISI" 2/2020, pp 57-78, DOI: 10.3280/PSI2020-002004