Posted by Dinah on March 19, 2004, at 11:44:36
In reply to Re: Ego strength » Dinah, posted by pegasus on March 18, 2004, at 11:09:02
He said that part of ego strength was having an enduring sense of who you are. So I'm guessing object constancy would be another component of it.
When I told him my ah-hah realization that he was right and that lack of ego strength was my biggest problem, he said "Well, I wouldn't say it was your *biggest* problem." Gee. Thanks... Ya gotta love a guy that honest.
But then he thought a bit more and said that yes, he thought it was my biggest core problem and that a lot of my other problems branched off from there.
And we had a relatively productive session discussing the areas where my ego strenth was lacking, and the fact that I used him and Risperdal as ego glue. He was amused that he was lumped in with a medication. And he thinks the only way to strengthen the ego is to practice, practice, practice. Build one brick on top of the other. And he thinks I am doing that - that I am progressing.
It was funny because right before I mentioned ego strength I was asking him about a couple of other things he told me years ago. He had said that he thought I would have been better off if I had never gone into therapy. I asked him if he still thought that, and he said no. He said that for one thing, he thought that he had mistaken my seeming competence for more than it was. And (what ties in with ego strength) he had underestimated how much life changes shook me. He said that when there was a major change in my life it shook my precarious equilibrium and it took me a loooong time (like years rather than months) to regain equilibrium again. And that my beginning therapy happened to coincide with a lot of life changes. Which was an absolutely perfect segue into the ego strength conversation.
poster:Dinah
thread:325443
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040313/msgs/326024.html