(1939).

, (72):i-xi

Ego Psychology and the Problem of Adaptation

Heinz Hartmann and David Rapaport 

Contents

Preface vii
Author's Note xi
1. The Conflict-Free Ego Sphere 3
2. Adaptation 22
3. Adaptation and “Fitting Together”—The Reality Principle 38
4. Ego Development and Adaptation 48
5. Internalization, Thinking, and Rational Behavior 57
6. Some Integrative Functions of the Ego 74
7. Implications for the Concepts of Health and Education 80
8. Preconscious Automatisms 86
9. Ego Apparatuses. Autonomous Ego Development 100
Bibliography 109
Name Index 115
Subject Index 117
v

Preface

The publication of a complete English translation of Heinz Hartmann's essay,

EGO PSYCHOLOGY AND THE PROBLEM OF ADAPTATION, inaugurates the
Monograph Series of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
This project was conceived several years ago, but its initiation has had to await
the availability of a psychoanalytic work of exceptional merit and importance.
The editors believe that the appropriate occasion has finally arrived. The
timeliness of this decision is attested to by the recent award to Dr. Hartmann, of
the Charles Frederick Menninger Award of the American Psychoanalytic
Association, for his scientific contributions.

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“Ich-Psychologie und Anpassungsproblem” was first presented in 1937 before
the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and then published in German in 1939 in the
Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse und Imago. Historically it represents a
turning point in the development of modern psychoanalytic theory. It is a
natural sequel to Freud's previous formulations of the structural hypothesis and
his contributions to ego psychology. With its appearance there began an
evolution in psychoanalytic thought which continues to

vii

ramify and the full implications of which for theory and practice are not yet fully
realized.

To readers intimately acquainted with current psychoanalytic ego psychology,

this essay will reveal the first formulations of some of its basic concepts. Many
of them will have a ring of familiarity, because of the remarkable degree to
which Hartmann's ideas have shaped, and become assimilated into, current
psychoanalytic thinking. One becomes aware of the tremendous impact of his
theories when one finds that it was in this essay that concepts such as the
undifferentiated phase, the conflict-free ego sphere, conflict-free ego
development, and primary and secondary autonomy were developed for the
first time. Hartmann discusses the role of endowment and of the inborn ego
apparatuses and their adaptive nature. The idea that ego defenses may
simultaneously serve the control of instinctual drives and the adaptation to the
external world finds its expression in this essay. Hartmann's concept of
adaptation is in no way restricted to the “cultural” sense of the term. It is a truly
inclusive conception, and he views it as an ongoing process, which has its roots
in the biological structure, and with many of its manifestations reflecting the
constant attempts of the ego to balance intrasystemic and intersystemic
tensions. The implications of his theory for the development of perception and
thought processes, the concepts of ego strength, ego weakness, and of
normality, are also discussed. Neutralization, and the impact of this construct
on the concept of sublimation, evolves quite naturally from this paper.

One sees in this work a systematic attempt to establish within the framework of
a psychoanalytic ego psychology the groundwork for a theory of human
behavior in general, normal as well as abnormal. The great sweep of
Hartmann's exceptionally rich intellect has made it possible for him in

viii

this task to integrate the whole field of psychoanalytic knowledge with the
related fields of biology, psychology, sociology, and philosophy.

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The opportunity to read this essay will reintroduce psychoanalysts to a cardinal
requirement of the scientific method which Dr. Hartmann's work demonstrates,
namely his unswerving insistence upon precision in methodology, and upon
logical consistency of theory. With it all, the rarified atmosphere of theory is
flavored by a humanistic tolerance and understanding, which is discernible in
his discussions of rational and irrational behavior, automatism and mechanisms
of integration.

The fact that this paper has never before been published in its entirety in
English left a void in the psychoanalytic literature for English-reading
psychoanalysts. This is now being filled by the decision of the Journal of the
American Psychoanalytic Association to publish this essay as its first
Monograph. We are proud to make it available to the many students of
psychoanalysis who have never known the full content of this classic essay.

The efforts of many were required to carry out this project. Foremost among
these is Dr. David Rapaport, who originally translated and published excerpts of
this work in his book, Organization and Pathology of Thought, but who for the
purposes of this Monograph prepared a completely new translation. His great
familiarity with the work in its original form, as well as the fact that Dr.
Hartmann himself has participated in the elucidation of certain crucial points,
provides assurance of the authoritative stature of this English version of the
original German article. In addition to our great indebtedness to Dr. Rapaport,
we wish to express our gratitude to the Ford Foundation, whose grant-in-aid to
the

ix

Austen Riggs Center permitted Dr. Rapaport and his associates to carry out the
preparation of the translation.

We also wish to thank Dr. Merton Gill for his assistance with the primary
translation; Miss Suzette H. Annin who is actually the co-translator and fully
responsible for the English of this Monograph; and Miss Rosemary Ranzoni who
was responsible for the typing of the many versions of this translation. Finally,
we acknowledge with great appreciation the over-all editorial assistance, as well
as bibliographical work, of Mrs. Lottie Maury Newman, Editor of International
Universities Press. It is this combined effort which we hope will make the
publication of this first of the Monograph Series of the Journal of the American
Psychoanalytic Association a noteworthy event.

The Editors

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 x

Author's Note

This essay, which appeared in German some twenty years ago, is published
here essentially unchanged. I still consider most of the thoughts presented in it
to be valid. Some of them were developed further, reformulated, or were stated
more systematically in subsequent papers. Nonetheless, I feel that a close
study of historical developments in psychoanalysis is still one main prerequisite
for its fuller understanding. I decided therefore to have this essay published in
its original form rather than to rewrite it in conformity with the present state of
our knowledge. Footnotes added in this edition (indicated by brackets) will
guide the reader to subsequent developments in my work of the subjects dealt
with in this paper.

I wish to express my warmest gratitude to Dr. David Rapaport. I am fully aware

how much resourcefulness and scholarly labor went into this revised translation
of the complete essay.

Heinz Hartmann

March, 1958 New York

xi

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