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the inner-outer distinction, rather than an evaluating and contrasting RT function. Relatively intact ego boundaries are necessary for accurate reality testing (Federn, 1926; Kernberg, 1967). RT is more intellectual, rational, and conceptual, while the sense of reality is more emotional, intuitive and perceptual. “Reality testing finds its material in the conditions of experience, while reality sense functions with respect to the experience itself” (Weisman, 1958, p. 246). III. Bdb. Ego Strength(s) Somewhat different from basic functions, ego strengths are defined by delay and control capacities. They include: • Impulse control – i.e., delay of gratification of oral, sexual, and hostile- destructive wishes; • Affect regulation – being able to tolerate strong affects without using defenses • Containing primary process mechanisms – keeping them out of consciousness (Bellak et al., 1973; Kernberg, 1975); • Tension tolerance (of internal conflict), frustration tolerance (waiting for external gratifications), & (emotional and physical) pain tolerance (Blackman, 2010) • Development of sublimatory channels (Kernberg, 1975) for drive wishes • Using fantasy as trial action (Hartmann, 1964); • Adaptive regression in the service of the ego (Kris 1952, ARISE – Bellak 1989), and of development (Blos, Sr.); allowing some primary process into consciousness to relate to small children, to tell a joke, to create art, and to engage in psychoanalytic treatment; • The stimulus barrier or screen (Esman, 1983) – allowing for focused thought, concentration, and work. III. Bdc. Defenses in Relations to Ego Functions and Ego Strength Defensive measures were, at one time, limited to repression and censorship of sexual thoughts (Freud 1900). Later, defenses were conceptualized as “ego instincts” (Freud 1915a; Young-Bruehl & Bethelard 1999). Today, “defense” refers to any mental operation that shuts out of consciousness an aspect of mental functioning (A. Freud 1936; Blackman, 2003). When affects are considered a combination of sensations and thoughts (Brenner 2006), defensive operations can be viewed as mechanisms that usually shut sensations or thoughts out of
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