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conflict and the exploration of the id that contribute to the formation of character traits. He mentions that the analytic task is mainly centered on the exploration of the obstacles that oppose the verbal manifestation, as a resistance to the emergence of instinctual drives. The interpretations of the analytic material are privileged in timing only when the patient in ego regression is ready for introspection. The surface becomes important in that the special attention is given to the flow of the sequence, changes in the tone of the voice, pauses, omissions, that hint on the nature of the defenses warding off the id derivatives. The author calls this microanalytic listening. Historically, Paniagua ties his contemporary Ego Psychological approach to the concepts which are appealing to Latin American analysts: The place of the analyst is not of knowledge, but of healthy ignorance, which is more than the use of floating attention based on countertransference, it is rather a conscious attentive attitude to the free associations of the patient. The latter is based on Theodore Reik´s (1948) concept of the “ intuitive third ear ” relying more on the analyst´s observation that on what he is feeling. This way, the analytic working though will boost the observing ego and the patient will have an active role of a co- participant, not only of a provider of biographical material. The interpretations are more clarifications (Bibring 1954), with great value placed on the effort of the patient involved in self-observation, rather than what seems to have been understood as classical authoritative one- sided interpretative interventions. The synthetic ego function will thus lead the analytic process to drive derivatives that were repressed, towards more adaptative solutions.
IV. CONCLUSION
In North America , contemporary Ego Psychology holds firmly to the view that vast portion of all aspects of psyche operate unconsciously, including conflictual interactions within and between id-ego-superego and the outside world with its objects and their internal representations, which produce wide range of compromise formations, implicated in psychic health and creativity, as well as in illness. Contemporary ego psychologists subscribe to the notion that the meaning, depth and intensity of experience come from integration of conscious and unconscious through fantasy, transference and from understanding of integration of conscious and unconscious primary process affective density with secondary process language, that springs from the deepest roots of existence. It is within this context that Ego psychology studies ego’s multiple roles in psychic conflict and complexities of intra-ego functioning, encompassing both defensive and autonomous ego functions, and ego strength. The interplay of intrapsychic and inter-psychic processes unfolds under varying internal and external conditions, including trauma, in life and in the analytic situation. Developmental unfolding and transformations of drives, defenses and internalized cultural and ethical values affect and are affected by autonomous ego functioning and ego strength and resilience.
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