From psychoanalytical determinism towards a free ego

The paper deals with the development of the Ego psychology, whose contributions, based on the teaching of S. Freud, have shifted the focus of the psychoanalytical approach to the development of the man's psychic apparatus, from the unconscious to the Ego and the conscious powers of the man's personality. By emphasizing them as well as the role of reality, it introduced the concept of psychological adaptation into psychoanalysis. The Ego-psychology was founded by H. Hartmann, E. Kris and R. Loewenstein. By relying on the reaching about the innate matrix, the autonomous Ego functions, the non-conflict zone, the mechanisms of defense, the regression in the function of the Ego, constructive aspects of aggression and by understanding the Superego in a new way etc. it enriched the available psychoanalytical concepts, affecting thus considerably both the theory of psychoanalysis and its practice - psychotherapy. Originating from the best tradition of psychoanalysis, the Ego psychology made important contributions to it, promoting its further development. It evolved thus out of the psychology of the unconscious (Id) through the psychology of the conscious or Ego into the contemporary psychology of the Self.