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Published on: September 27, 2020
Assessing ego strength: spinning straw into gold
1School of Nursing, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO, USA. pbjorkl732@aol.com
Topic:
The reexamination of ego function from the perspective of ego strength rather than ego deficit.
Purpose:
To promote the assessment of ego strength as a valuable skill for nurse psychotherapists, and to underscore the importance of ego strength as a relevant construct for both assessment and psychotherapy outcome measurement.
Sources:
The literature of modern psychoanalysis and ego psychology, Bellak's research on ego function, Parse's nursing theory, and the nursing literature on ego assessment.
Conclusions:
Identifying and assessing ego strength helps nurse psychotherapists locate clients on a developmental continuum, suggests a place to join with the client at the inception of therapy, and provides data to develop therapeutic goals.
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