Concept
Ego autonomy
In ego psychology, the relative independence of ego functions from the drives. Heinz Hartmann first spoke in 1939 of an area of autonomous ego development, made up of functions that cannot be derived from the drives, and later distinguished primary autonomy, belonging to inborn apparatuses such as perception, memory and motility, from secondary autonomy. Secondary autonomy belongs to patterns that first arose in conflict, for instance as defences, but through a change of function became stable structures serving adaptation.
Read more- Broader concept
- Ego psychology
- Introduced by
- Heinz Hartmann
- Key works
- 3
- Related
- Conflict-free ego sphere
introduced by
- Heinz Hartmann 1939 Hartmann named an area of "autonomous ego development" in 1939 and set out the distinction between primary and secondary autonomy in his papers of the 1950s, collected in "Essays on Ego Psychology".
derives from
- Conflict-free ego sphere 1939 Hartmann's idea of autonomous ego development grew out of his conflict-free ego sphere: both describe ego functions that cannot be derived from the drives or from conflict.