Adaptation and Affect: Toward a Synthesis of Piagetian and Psychoanalytic Psychologies

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ADAPTATION AND AFFECT: TOWARD A SYNTHESIS OF PIAGETIAN AND PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGIES ALFRED P. FRENCH, M.D., and MARGARET S. STEWARD, Ph.D.* The variety of human behavior which confronts the working clinician is immense to the point of being bewildering. Yet, effective diagnosis and treatment can be no better than the conceptual framework with which we work. Traditionally, definitions and schemes of classification have been constructed inductively from descriptions of behavior. While this approach is necessary and would appear logical, the end result has been classification schemes which, while often clinically useful, are in fact grossly illogical [1, 2, 3], and the proliferation of vaguely defined but critical terms such as "personality" [4]. An alternative method is to begin with a set of basic assumptions about behavior, to rigorously define initial terms, to construct an internally consistent system, and subsequently to compare this system with observed clinical phenomena, operationally testing the usefulness of defined terms. While the former inductive method might lead to classifications and definitions which are clinically useful but vague or illogical, the latter deductive method might lead to tightly logical but clinically irrelevant definitions and classifications. In this paper we present a model of behavior which has been derived from two basic assumptions about behavior. (1) We assume that all behavior may be conceptualized as consisting of two basic categories of maneuvers: (a) assimilation, that is, the modification of the environment or part of the environment to suit the needs of the organism, and (è) accommodation, that is, the modification of the organism itself to meet the requirements of the environment. (2) We assume that affect may be conceptualized as a group ofqualitatively specific signals ofthe organism about the survival value of a particular course of action. The first assumption , derived from biological theory, has been elaborated most extensively by Piaget [5, 6]; the second assumption is derived from general system theory [7]. The unifying concept which, in various guises, may be found ?University of California, Davis, Sacramento Medical Center, Mental Health Services, 2315 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento, California 95817. 464 J Alfred P. French and Margaret S. Steward · Adaptation and Affect throughout widely differing behavioral models is that of the ego. We define the ego to be that set of functions which maximizes adapatation through modification of behavior, the environment, and the relationship between the two. This is consistent with a neo-Freudian view which defines the five ego functions to be motility, affect, cognition, memory, and perception [8], and with the general framework of classical Freudian thought [9]. Using Piagetian terms, one function of the ego is the selection of the accommodation-assimilation ratio appropriate for any circumstance. In a more social perspective, Erikson [10] has pointed out that the simultaneous evolution of an increasingly complex and rich unconscious and preconscious fantasy life, on the one hand, and an increasingly complex and demanding social structure, on the other, have required the coevolution of an intermediary set of functions which, again, may be defined as the ego. Miller, Galanter, and Pribram [11] used the concept of the "TOTE" unit ("TOTE" is a condensation of "Test, Operate, Test, Exit") to describe the sequence whereby the organism successively modifies "dispositional states" as a function of experience ; again, we understand this conceptualization to be essentially that of the ego, as defined elsewhere, although these authors did not use this term. In summary, the objectives of this paper are to present a model of behavior which emerges directly from simple biological and general systems concepts, and unifies psychoanalytic, Piagetian, and psychophysiological conceptualizations of human behavior. Two sizable traditions have evolved in parallel during the past century . On the one hand, Piaget has started with the basic biological concepts of accommodation and assimilation and their resultant, adaptation , and has moved from this base to a study of the development of cognitive function in children and adolescents. In so doing, he has moved progressively into an increasingly abstract mathematical and logical framework, highly formalized as "structuralism" [12]. On the other hand, all of contemporary physiology rests on the brilliant insight of Claude Bernard subsequently elaborated by Walter Cannon [13], namely, that organisms maintain a constant internal environment despite widely fluctuating external conditions. This concept...

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