Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Eye-tracking to Distinguish Comprehension-based and Oculomotor-based Regressive Eye Movements During Reading
Published on: October 18, 2018
Guntrip's concept of the regressed ego
1Interdisciplinary Studies Field Major, University of California, Berkeley, USA. reca1000@comcast.net
Abstract:
This paper explores what is perhaps the most important contribution of Harry Guntrip to psychoanalysis: namely his concept of the "regressed ego." In the course of his psychoanalytic work, he found certain concepts to be problematic. Therefore, while he valued some of Freud's ideas, he challenged his emphasis upon the importance of the instincts. Guntrip then drew extensively on the more object relational approach of Fairbairn and Winnicott. Nevertheless, although Guntrip believed that all these figures described important dimensions of psychological experience, he felt that they failed to acknowledge that layer which he called the "regressed ego." In his analysis of the "regressed ego," Guntrip made a valuable contribution to psychoanalytic theory and practice. However, because he thought that with this idea he had discovered the underlying cause of most psychological disturbances, he engaged in a form of reductionism and therefore undermined the value of his observations about this layer of psychological experience.
Related Concept Videos
Structure of Self
Components of the Mind: Id, Ego, and Superego
Self-Discrepancy Theory
Self-Concept
Infancy and Emerging Recognition
During infancy, self-concept is virtually nonexistent. Babies do not distinguish themselves as separate entities and often mistake their...
Understanding Self-Concept
Psychosexual Stages of Personality: Phallic
The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison
