Customer Reviews

The Wisdom of the Ego

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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.

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?).

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.

George Vaillant has put a life time of work into a 375 page book. It allows the reader to delve into the wonders of the psychoanalytical world. With a constant review of three cohorts he goes onto explain and give thorough examples of his theories. Despite the inconsistencies of the book and the constant contradictions, Vaillant is able to prove his point. The human psych is unstable and dependant on a level of maturity and development of the Ego.