Psychoanalytic Concepts and the Structural Theory

Abstract

The germinal proposition of psychoanalysis is, of course, that pathogenic mental conflicts underlie symptom-formation. A mode of the psychic apparatus which regulates and discharges mental energy should not only elucidate how mental forces oppose each other but also be consistent with clinical findings. In 1900, on the basis of accessibility to consciousness, Freud proposed a topographic model of the mind with activities taking place in three separate regions. Psychoanalytic work was, consequently, directed towards facilitating the emergence of the unconscious (force) via the preconscious into the conscious—a popular view delineating the essential task of psychoanalysis and one still erroneously held by many physicians, including psychiatrists. By 1923, however, broader clinical experiences demonstrated that mental conflicts may be generated in other ways: through opposing unconscious forces in opposition to moral forces, and through pressures from the external world. In order to attain larger consistency of theory and practice without retracting the