ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with some remarks about the relationship between psychoanalysis and casework. The term relationship implies the existence of attitudes and activities between separate individuals or distinct groups. It is true that the activities of both caseworker and psychoanalytic psychiatrist can be described as lying within the larger field of applied psychology; their professional individuality, however, is clearly defined by their different basic operations. When a psychoneurotic patient's ego is overwhelmed by an internal structural conflict, the skill, knowledge, and experience of the psychoanalytic psychiatrist should be employed. The psychological theories psychoanalysis has evolved consist of abstractions and generalizations from clinical observation. Information about ego psychology will stand the social worker in good stead by serving as a basic orientation and ordering principle. The knowledge of ego psychology is thus primarily an instrument of observation.
