Concept
Neutralization
In Heinz Hartmann's ego psychology, the process by which the energy of the sexual and aggressive drives is changed from an instinctual into a non-instinctual mode, so that the ego can use it for its own functions. Hartmann treated neutralization as a broader version of Freud's sublimation and desexualization, extended to aggression, and saw the capacity to neutralize as a measure of ego strength.
Read more- Broader concept
- Ego psychology
- Introduced by
- Heinz Hartmann
- Key works
- 2
- Related
- Sublimation
introduced by
- Heinz Hartmann 1950 Hartmann introduced neutralized drive energy in his 1950 paper on the psychoanalytic theory of the ego and worked it out in his 1955 paper on sublimation.
derives from
- Sublimation 1955 In "Notes on the Theory of Sublimation" (1955) Hartmann recast Freud's sublimation as one case of a more general neutralization of drive energy, covering aggression as well as libido.