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This paper discusses how psychoanalytic ideas were brought to bear in the Allied struggle against the Third Reich and explores some of the claims that were made about this endeavour. It shows how a variety of studies of Fascist psychopathology, centred on the concept of superego, were mobilized in military intelligence, post-war planning and policy recommendations for ‘denazification’. Freud's ideas were sometimes championed by particular army doctors and government planners; at other times they were combined with, or displaced by, competing, psychiatric and psychological forms of treatment and diverse studies of the Fascist ‘personality’. This is illustrated through a discussion of the treatment and interpretation of the deputy leader of the Nazi Party, Rudolf Hess, after his arrival in Britain in 1941. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determines the historical evolution of childhood and personality structure by analyzing several German autobiographers from the 13th to the 17th century. Description of the concept of superego and its connection to personality structures and internalized object relations; Examination of the borderline, narcissistic and neurotic personality structures; Illustration of each personality type by historical representatives; Ranking of personality structures based on their degree of psychological integration.

Medical expert assessment of a disease-induced disability requires the integrative examination of own and outside anamnestic data, file content and psychic cross-findings received in the assessment interview, if necessary completed by results of psychologic testing. The measure of disability with regard to psychogenic diseases is the impairment of the so-called complex ego-functions because they make it possible to judge someone's will which is available to overcome his inhibitions concerning achievement. This case report describes how to determine and present an impairment of complex ego-functions on the finding level. It is the author's view that it is desirable to operationalise this way of receiving findings with the aim of achieving obligatory criteria for granting payment to every insured person.

In early childhood, the mother is the primary object of the child's dyadic relationship, and mother and child form a unity together. In the oedipal period, however, the father enters this dyadic unity, and it is with his entry that the dyad becomes triangular and begins to incorporate features of a triangular relationship. In some cases the father may even replace the mother, thereby reducing the mother's relevance. Kafka is an interesting example of this unusual case. In addition, a close look at Kafka's psychopathology facilitates a better understanding of the interdependency of preoedipal, oedipal and adolescent stages. A psychoanalytic approach to Kafka reveals severe disturbances of these major developmental steps, which, on their part, impede the development of Kafka's individual identity. It is against this background that Kafka's author identity will be analysed in greater detail, by regarding representations of separatedness, continuity, and originality in his literary work to be expressions of his author identity. One further assumption of this paper is that Kafka's ideal self and superego are not separate from each other. His feelings of guilt, shame and fear demonstrate that these instances are very much intertwined and not distinct from each other. The reader's emotional agony while reading some of Kafka's work signalizes that Kafka's ideal self and superego form a unity together. Psychoanalysts, however, commonly accept that, in normal development, ideal self and superego should become separate entities, and continue their activities separately. It seems as though Kafka's ideal self and superego have not gained sovereignty yet, and likewise, it is difficult to separate the son's superego or ideal self from his father's.

The author reports on her work with women who have returned to their native Spain after living for a lengthy period in central Europe, drawing upon a detailed case study to demonstrate that migration can make people ill if the social conditions of the host country are such that they are experienced by migrants as degrading and discriminating. Zeul points out in this connection that in the psychoanalytic literature on emigration there has been a significant neglect of social factors and the influence they have on the way people come to terms with migration psychologically. With reference notably to ideas stemming from the work of Doris Bernstein, she also pinpoints the role played by a specifically female super-ego structure originating in very early mother-daughter interaction and early body experiences which sabotages the efforts of these women to come to terms successfully with emigration and repatriation.