ABSTRACT
Ego psychology and object relations theory are two related and overlapping yet nevertheless distinctive paradigms for understanding human development. Together with drive theory and self psychology, they constitute the contemporary psychodynamic base of clinical social work. When social workers began to integrate ego psychology into their knowledge base in the 1940s and 1950s, the result was far-reaching changes in the view of the person and the human experience, the nature of human problems, and the treatment process. In embodying changes that expanded and modified Freudian drive-theory’s emphasis, ego psychology linked individuals to their social environments: “Here at last was the happy synthesis between the social order and the psychological depths—the ego, which bridged these two worlds” (Briar & Miller, 1971, p. 19).
