ABSTRACT
Numerous attempts have been made to utilize paradigms external to psychoanalysis to provide insight into psychoanalytic concepts. One of the dangers of such cross-fertilization is that concepts from different paradigms that appear to be similar may in fact be fundamentally different and thus lead to greater confusion, which is then obfuscated by pseudo-insight. Given this caveat, this paper will attempt to apply the paradigm of the theory of evolution to psychoanalysis. The ongoing paradigmatic shift within psychoanalysis from ego psychology to self psychology (Ornstein, 1981; Stolorow, 1983; Joseph, 1985) can be profitably conceptualized utilizing the following approach.
