ABSTRACT
Theorists and clinicians typically resort to structural metaphors in understanding and describing personality organization and functioning. Freud (1923), of course, established the early foundations of structural theory. Psychoanalytic theory became more completely organized around structural and developmental constructs based on the contributions from ego psychology (Blanck & Blanck, 1975), nonpsychoanalytic structural developmental theories (Loevinger, 1976; Werner, 1957), Erikson’s (1950) epigenetic theory, object relations theories (Kernberg, 1976, 1992), and self-psychology (Kohut, 1971; Mahler, 1968; Mahler, Pine, & Bergman, 1975; Pine, 1990; Stolorow & Lachmann, 1980). Structural theories of personality focus on the cohesive organization of personality functioning, level of complexity and hierarchical organization, defensive organization, range and quality of adaptive functioning, and response to conflict and stress. The concept of developmental lines has made a major contribution to the multidimensional description and assessment of personality functioning (Blanck & Blanck, 1975; Freud, 1963). From Freud’s simple tripartite structural theory, a contemporary approach to structural developmental processes integrates structural theory, attachment theory and developmental psychology, and cognitive psychology in defining and understanding internalized mental structures (Blatt, 1995).
