The Wisdom of the Ego [Paperback]

George E. Vaillant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 21, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0674953738 | ISBN-13: 978-0674953734

One of America's preeminent psychiatrists draws on his famous Study of Adult Development to give us an exhilarating look at how the mind's defenses work. What we see as the mind's trickery, George Vaillant tells us, is actually healthy. What's more, it can reveal the mind at its most creative and mature, soothing and protecting us in the face of unbearable reality, managing the unmanageable, ordering disorder. And because creativity is so intrinsic to this alchemy of the ego, Vaillant mingles his studies of obscure lives with psychobiographies of famous artists and others--including Florence Nightingale, Sylvia Plath, Anna Freud, and Eugene O'Neill.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The rumor of the death of Ego Psychology is greatly exaggerated. As long as George Vaillant writes his engaging books extolling the wisdom of ego psychology it is destined to remain part of our theoretical landscape...The Wisdom of the Ego is written with the author's vivid, sometimes witty and consistently clear style, happily interspersed with numerous examples both from his longitudinal studies, as well as from biographies of well-known people...One need not agree with all of Vaillant's premises to appreciate and enjoy this colorful and many-faceted book. I cannot think of a better, more absorbing book to introduce clinical graduate students and clinicians in general to an up-dated version of the best ideas of ego psychology.
--Sophie Freud (American Journal of Psychotherapy )

This is a remarkable synthesis of the best current thinking on ego psychology as well as a many-faceted picture of what Robert White would call 'lives in progress.' It makes on its own not only a highly innovative contribution to ego psychology but an equally original and impressive contribution to longitudinal research. A remarkable and many-faceted work.
--George W. Goethals, Harvard University

Vaillant tells us that ego defenses are not pathological formations or symptoms of mental illness. They are ingenious self-deceptions that serve adaptation...He is to be commended for bringing certain unconscious processes into focus and for illuminating the various ways in which ego defenses contribute to a person's adaptation to life.
--Louise J. Kaplan (Boston Sunday Globe )

The thesis of The Wisdom of the Ego is most persuasively developed by the use of life histories, some of which derive from subjects in Vaillant's study groups but many of which are derived from life histories of famous individuals. The reader gets delicious insights into the way that life experiences shaped the ego's defensive repertoire and how these defenses then shaped the careers of characters as diverse as Beethoven and Emily Dickinson, Tolstoy and Henry Ford, and Gandhi and Josef Mengele...The illustrations offered by these famous lives result in a book that is entertaining and memorable.
--John G. Gunderson, M.D. (American Journal of Psychiatry )

Mental health, social fitness, creativity, self-deception, success and failure are documented with uplifting humor and nobility. Medical and psychiatric understanding is eruditely conveyed with the good taste of a fine after-dinner story. (Canadian Medical Association Journal )

A stimulating presentation of theory and research on ego development. (Choice )

A richly textured, elegantly written, and humane book by the person who is becoming the Anna Freud of his day. Vaillant's sympathetic treatment of the defenses is itself wise and creative.
--Robert Kegan, Harvard University and the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology

This is a brilliant, not to say unique, book. It brings to the study of the ego the same clarifying empiricism, animating passion, and illuminating insight that so strikingly characterized the pioneering investigations of the dynamic unconcious a hundred years ago. Behind The Wisdom of the Ego lies the wonderful wisdom of George Vaillant.
--John C. Nemiah, Darmouth Medical School

Review

This is a remarkable synthesis of the best current thinking on ego psychology as well as a many-faceted picture of what Robert White would call 'lives in progress.' It makes on its own not only a highly innovative contribution to ego psychology but an equally original and impressive contribution to longitudinal research. A remarkable and many-faceted work. (George W. Goethals, Harvard University ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (July 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674953738
• ISBN-13: 978-0674953734
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #162,291 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

George E. Vaillant, M.D., is a psychoanalyst and a research psychiatrist, one of the pioneers in the study of adult development. He is a professor at Harvard University and directed Harvard's Study of Adult Development for thirty-five years. He is the author of Aging Well and The Natural History of Alcoholism, and his 1977 book, Adaptation to Life, is a classic text in the study of adult development. He lives in Boston; East Thetford, Vermont; and Victoria, Australia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gaining in Wisdom : A Resource for Real Life, February 4, 2000

By 

"nv5555" (Napa Valley) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wisdom of the Ego (Hardcover)

Seldom does a book, written by a psychiatrist for scholarly and professional reasons, make so much sense and resonate so deeply. George Vaillant M.D., a brillant mind and a gifted researcher, culls his vast sea of knowledge about the inner workings of the psyche and has shows us therapists and lay people alike how to better understand ours'. Dr.Vaillant writes with wit , warmth and compassion. He makes complex psychoanalytic theories very accessible and relevant to our daily lives.This text is absolutley indispensible for the psychotherapy student, the curious lay reader or the seasoned cliniciain who seeks to deepen and expand his or her understanding of the soul .Having delighted in reading the book when it was first published, I find myself returning to it again and again for its wise and engaging commentary on being human.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Mind's Response to the Human Condition, January 19, 2012

By 

Markus Youssef (Toronto) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Wisdom of the Ego (Paperback)

Primarily about defense mechanisms - taught and clarified using a comparative approach - Examples:
"The task of splitting is to alleviate ambivalence and assign all the good feelings to one person and all the bad feelings to a scapegoat, as it were. For most of us splitting takes place demurely out of sight and mitigated by fantasy - Certainly in our imaginations we read with greater interest about the exploits of uninhibited stars like Elvis Presley and Madonna than we do of the good deeds of Mother Teresa and Eleanor Roosevelt. The small child has no difficulty cuddling up to a good Mummy while she reads to him or her about imaginary wicked witches and stepmothers who serve as convenient receptacles for most of Mummy's faults. Splitting is different from reaction formation because in reaction formation the user is oblivious to ambivalence and black is truly treated as white. With splitting a world that is appropriately gray is separated into all black and all white and the individual is left divided against himself or herself. Reaction Formation differs from projection in that it condemns the impulse but leaves responsibility with the user while projection shifts responsibility for the origin of the impulse or affect from the subject to object and may or may not reverse its value. Reaction formation can be distinguished from altruism in that reaction formation gives the user little pleasure. The self-deception or "denial" of reaction formation is different from that of dissociation (neurotic denial) because dissociation distracts us from and ignores our internal feelings while reaction formation notices everything but reverses its value." The author holds a positive attitude towards defenses, at one point even calling them a work of art (perhaps a bit of reaction formation on his part?).

12 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent look at a very hackneyed subject, September 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Wisdom of the Ego (Paperback)

This book is used as a basic text for an Abnormal Psychology class at Harvard. It is an easy read, very interesting and filled with information that makes sense.

It takes a very humanizing view to Freud's defenses and shows how that be thought of as good things.