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Creative experience may serve as a bridge between ‘ego core’ and ‘ego boundaries’ to be traversed, starting at any point and moving in either direction, like an analytic interpretation (Rose 1964). In his later writings, Rose (2004) weaves together metaphor-accessing primary process ambiguity (Kris 1952) with unconscious fantasy stimulating affects (Arlow 1969), and studies of central visual processing and (primary and secondary) neural sensory ‘mapping patterns’ (Zeki 2001, Damasio 2003) to propose that aesthetic forms contain the sensory impact of perceptual ambiguity, leading directly to affects, secondarily elaborated by unconscious fantasy. Especially with the regard to the non-verbal arts, he hypothesizes the link between the arts and the pre-verbal development, when sensory data were intrinsically ambiguous and susceptible to multiple interpretations: “Together with the fresh affects that accompany such rediscovery, this takes place within the regulation of the safe holding environment of aesthetic form. Thus, nonverbal art might be said to continue on higher levels the affect regulation begun preverbally” (Rose 2004, p. 427). III. C. DEVELOPMENTS OF EGO PSYCHOLOGY SPECIFIC TO EUROPE The way European analysts document and reconstruct the various approaches to Ego Psychology in Europe is to draw on Otto Fenichel . In his 1941 paper “Psychoanalysis of character,” describing “three reasons why psychoanalysis could not fail to be extended to ego psychology” (Fenichel 1941a/1954, p. 200), he presents the first reason as the clinical phenomenon of the patient’s resistance: “Thus it was the necessity for analysing the resistance which in practice started psychoanalytic ego psychology” (Fenichel ibid, p. 201). Among the early contributions from pre-WW II era, Anna Freud ’s specific focus was on developmental psychology together with conceptual and diagnostic research. For Paul Federn, Ego Psychology meant the means to better understand how to formulate and treat the clinical problems of patients with a damaged ego, a field in which he was a pioneer, as Anna Freud was in hers. Additionally, among the European authors of the pre-war period, the role of Sándor Ferenczi with severely traumatized patients cannot be overlooked. Ego Psychology was the main inspiration for the multifaceted work which Alexander Mitscherlich performed in West Germany till his death in 1982, aged 73, in order not only to help his people work through the incredible disaster brought about by the twelve years of Nazi Regime, but also in order to bring an enlightened and socially critical psychoanalysis back to his country. The common denominator of his work was Freud’s 1928 plea for a stronger ego that is able to listen to and follow die Stimme des Intellekts (the voice of reason). Another major contribution to Ego Psychology coming from post-World War II Europe is represented by Joseph Sandler’s integrative agenda, which allowed bringing Ego Psychology closer to Object Relations Theories and to the School of Melanie Klein. Although (North American) Ego Psychology was critically received by the Italian Psychoanalytic Society, Stefano Bolognini’s clinical priorities should be noted in terms of the
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