PubMed Health⌕ Search
Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 6622600

Ego boundary as process: a systemic-contextual approach.

S Polster
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

This paper examines the ego boundary construct, outlining its origin and development within psychoanalytic theory and demonstrating the ways in which its interpretation and use have been affected and circumscribed by the structural model upon which psychoanalytic theory is based. In particular, I will discuss the sequence of reasoning by which the construct boundary became synonymous with barrier at the expense of consideration of its role in maintaining contact and exchange with the world. The contributions and limitations of the mathematical model of Kurt Lewin are also discussed. An alternative systemic-contextual model is proposed, a model which describes boundary not as barrier but as dialectical processes of separation and inclusion which mediate a person's complex relationship with the world.

Explore related subjects

EgoFreudian TheoryGestalt TheoryHumansObject AttachmentPsychoanalytic TheoryJournal Article

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

S Polster. 1983. Ego boundary as process: a systemic-contextual approach.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6622600/

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2006

A neural plasticity perspective on the schizophrenic condition.

Imbalanced plasticity of neural networks in the brain is proposed to underlie deficits in the integration of efferent and afferent processes in schizophrenia. These deficits affect the priming of the behavior implementing systems by prior knowledge, and thus impair both controlled regulation and automatic activation of mental and motor processes. The sense of self as a distinct entity can consequently be undermined. In predominantly reality-distorting patients, hypo-plasticity of neural connectivity may cause the emergence of highly focused but inflexible patterns of activation in their representation and response systems. This may lead to dominance of prepotent patterns of activity in these systems and a relative inability of higher control systems to bias lower level activity towards congruence with the ongoing cognitive and motor context. By contrast, predominantly disorganized patients are characterized by hyper-plastic connectivity. This leads to a weakening of prepotent response tendencies but also, as in reality-distorting patients, to less effective top-down contextual constraining.

Ego↗
PubMed2006

Thought as action: inner speech, self-monitoring, and auditory verbal hallucinations.

Passivity experiences in schizophrenia are thought to be due to a failure in a neurocognitive action self-monitoring system (NASS). Drawing on the assumption that inner speech is a form of action, a recent model of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) has proposed that AVHs can be explained by a failure in the NASS. In this article, we offer an alternative application of the NASS to AVHs, with separate mechanisms creating the emotion of self-as-agent and other-as-agent. We defend the assumption that inner speech can be considered as a form of action, and show how a number of previous criticisms of applying the NASS to AVHs can be refuted. This is achieved in part through taking a Vygotskian developmental perspective on inner speech. It is suggested that more research into the nature and development of inner speech is needed to further our understanding of AVHs.

Ego↗