ABSTRACT
The history of psychoanalysis is simultaneously the history of culture, the objective psyche, the “I” and the unconscious. Examination of the original symptoms that served to generate the field of psychoanalysis shows great differences from the times of Freud and Jung to the symptoms therapists see today. These differences arise from the changes the ego has undergone from the 19th century to the present. The ego significantly determines the nature of experience which must be made unconscious and the symptoms that result. This chapter traces the changes in the nature of the ego over the last century, from the “atomic self” to the current “smeared self.” The smeared self results from multiple cultural changes, especially the prevalence of ambient societal deconstruction. Deconstruction operates on narrative and discourse, which powerfully impacts identity and ego, reconfiguring it. This new configuration of the ego, driven by deconstruction, yields a new configuration of the unconscious and new challenges that our patients present for treatment.
