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To cite this article: Ronald Britton (2002) Commentary by Ronald Britton, Neuropsychoanalysis: An Interdisciplinary
Journal for Psychoanalysis and the Neurosciences, 4:1, 26-27, DOI: 10.1080/15294145.2002.10773374
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2002.10773374
26
Ronald Britton
27
Ronald Britton
30 December 2001
In his introduction to the section ``A Psychoanalytic Concept of the Self'' of his paper, David
Milrod underlines how in psychoanalytic literature there is a great deal of confusion around the
meaning of terms such as ``the ego'', ``the self''
and ``the self representation''. Does the term
``self'' refer toI quotethe individual or
person, his ego as a psychic structure, to both of
these equally, or to something else? I agree with
the author on the fact that there is confusion, and
I think that his theory, based on a careful
examination of the concept within the framework
of ego psychology, is a step forward in the right
direction, i.e., of clarication within a psychoanalytic model. It represents the rst stage of the
theoretical analysis of a discipline. ``This stage
(internal or intragural analysis) requires the
model or theory to be coherent, with a solid
conceptual system; it should not be contradictory
but, rather, should be able to take into account a
certain number of factors. Every intragural
analysis can improve the internal consistency of
a theory . . . The second stage calls for a
confrontation between two or more theories by