of the real self can emerge (348). The constructive forces in ego psychology become
known as the ‘Third Force’.
Bernard Paris has applied ‘Third Force’ psychology to several canonical novels whose
self-alienating characters fit Horney’s descriptions of neurotic styles, while self-
activating characters express their ‘Third Force’ as defined by Maslow (Paris 1974:29).
For Maslow, the ‘Third Force’ is our ‘essentially biologically based inner nature’, unique
to the person but also species-wide, whose needs, emotions and capacities are ‘either
neutral, pre-moral or positively good’ (1968:3). Neuroses result when our hierarchically
organised basic needs are not met (21). When one level of needs is satisfied, the needs of
another level emerge as persons define themselves existentially. During that process the
person has ‘peak experiences’, epiphanic moments that afford glimpses into the state of
being fully actualised and can have the effect of removing symptoms, of changing a
person’s view of himself and the world, of releasing creativity and generally conveying
the idea that life is worth living in spite of its difficulties (101). Maslow admits that not
all peak experiences are moments of ‘Being recognition’ (100), but he insists that people
are ‘most their identities in peak experiences’ (103) where they feel most self-integrated.
The development of the ego as self-reliant and socially accepted is perhaps most
evident in the young adult novel whose comic resolution integrates the young person
with socially acceptable norms. Frequently such narratives include the figure of the
social worker or therapist who aids the process, or the young protagonist plans to
become a therapist so as to ‘help kids in trouble’. Such problem narratives are
accessible to young readers through stories that occasionally seem like case studies. The
young adult novel that projects the genuine misfit as a worthwhile subject is a rarity. The
largely middle-class context of young adult novels generally furthers the optimism
implied in ego psychology.
Melanie Klein and D.W.WinnicottAccording to Klein, because the ego is not fully integrated at birth, it is subject to
splitting and fragmentation as it projects states of feeling and unconscious wishes on
objects or absorbs qualities of the object through introjection where they become defined
as belonging to the ego.
Like Freud, Klein saw the ‘exploration of the unconscious [as] the main task of psycho-
analytic procedure, and that the analysis of transference [was] the means of achieving
this’ (1955/1975a: 123). Her analysands were primarily children whose inability to
freely associate verbally led Klein to develop the psychoanalytic play technique already
begun by Anna Freud (1925/1975b: 146).
The use of simple toys in a simply equipped room brought out ‘a variety of symbolical
meanings’ bound up with the child’s fantasies, wishes and experiences. By approaching
the child’s play in a manner similar to Freud’s interpretation of dreams, but by always
individualising the child’s use of symbols, Klein felt she could gain access to the child’s
unconscious (1975a: 137). She discovered that the primary origin of impulses, fantasies
and anxieties could be traced back to the child’s original object relation—the mother’s
breast—even when the child was not breastfed (138).
PSYCHOANALYTICAL CRITICISM 91