Paul Federen's Psychoanalytic Thinking Research

Paul Federn (1871 -1950) was a famous Austrian psychoanalyst and physician who was an early follower of Freud and was absolute loyalty to him. Federn persisted in exploring further ideas that Freud has developed in his earlier phase, which was based on his observations of the dream and his work with psychoses. Federn studied the ego from a phenomenological point of view, he expressed the fact that the ego is an Erlebins- that is,a subjective experience- by equating the ego with the sensation of one’s own ego, which he called ’ego feeling’. To account for the fluctuating intensity of the ego feeling, Federn assumed that the metapsychological basis of the ego was a coherent cathexis unity, with a core surrounded by an ego boundary as its peripheral sensory organ. Federn was the first psychoanalyst to treat psychotics, he revised the technique of psycho-analysis which was effective to neuroses and succeeded in developing specific therapeutic procedures for the treatment of psychoses. Federn had demonstrated that the psychoses were the result of a diminished supply of ego cathexis and recognized that. the therapeutic goal of psychoses was to make free material repressed. Federn also pointed out that the essential feature of the treatment of psychoses was social. Accordingly he advocated the participation of a properly trained nurse or social worker in the treatment of psychoses. Moreover,Federn believed in psychoanalysis as a social therapy and pedagogy tool,thus transcending psychoanalysis beyond psychiatry and psychology into the fields of the social sciences.Federn’s contributions to psychoanalysis primarily lie in the field of ego psychology. Through his deep insight into the ego,he opens a new path for ego investigation and psychiatric treatment and proposes a method of transforming society and pedagogy. However, Federn has not got rid of the biological basis and has failed to develop many of his fruitful concepts in a coherent and systematic way. Anyway,Federn has a deep and lasting impact on contemporary psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.