The wisdom of the ego

Introduction Why Praise the Human Ego? Figure 1. A model of the adaptive mind at work, illustrating the defenses of isolation and displacement. A Matter of Definition Figure 2. The four lodestars of human conflict. Table 1. Contrasting ways of altering the conscious representation of a conflict Table 2. Mutually exclusive ways of identifying the defenses Self-Deceptions of Everyday Life Necessary Questions How Can We Prove That Defenses Exist? Table 3. Correlations between maturity of defenses and measures of successful adult outcome Table 4. Relation of maturity of defensive style and late midlife adjustment of men in the College sample Table 5. Use of defenses by the most depressed and the least distressed men in the College sample Table 6. Correlations between maturity of defenses and biopsychosocial antecedents Table 7. Relative frequency of use of a given defense as a major defensive style Table 8. Ethnicity and the use of selected defenses among men in the Core City sample Table 9. Effect of cognitive impairment and alcohol abuse on maturity of defenses among men in the Core City sample The Ego and Adult Development Figure 4. A model of adult development (This is essentially Erik Erikson’s model of the adult life cycle with the addition of Stages 6A and 7A. Figure 5. Age of mastery of selected psychosocial tasks. Table 10. Psychosocial stages reached by members of the three samples Table 11. Independence of psychosocial developmental stage from social class, intelligence, and education Table 12. Percentage of Core City men assigned clinically to Stages 6-7 who mastered a majority of objective criteria reflecting Stages 6A and 7 Table 13. Correlations between maturity of psychosocial stage and major outcome variables Life Histories The Ego and Creativity Table 14. Major differences between the more and the less creative Terman women Table 15. Major differences between the more and the less creative College men Sylvia Plath: Creativity and Psychotic Defenses Anna Freud: Mature Defenses Eugene O’Neill: The Maturation of Defenses Disadvantage, Resilience, and Mature Defenses Table 16. Eleven vulnerable Core City men and their risk factors Table 17. Potential sources of resilience How Does the Ego Mature? Acknowledgments Credits