Summary of 'The Unconscious (Chapters II, IV, V, VI and VII)' by Freud, Resúmenes de Psicoanálisis

¡Descarga Summary of 'The Unconscious (Chapters II, IV, V, VI and VII)' by Freud y más Resúmenes en PDF de Psicoanálisis solo en Docsity! 1 Made by MatyBuda THE UNCONSCIOUS (CHAPTERS II, IV, V, VI and VII) Sigmund Freud (1915) Summary: II. THE MULTIVOCALITY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS, AND THE TOPICAL POINT OF VIEW Before moving forward, it is crucial to recognize that the condition of the unconscious is only a superficial facet of the psyche and does not provide a complete understanding. There are various psychic acts that share the characteristic of being unconscious, from those that are barely latent to repressed processes. While it would be helpful to dispense with the distinction between conscious and unconscious entirely, in practice it is complicated. Therefore, we often use the terms "conscious" and "unconscious" in a descriptive and systematic way, which can cause confusion. In terms of the psychic process, it generally goes through two phases: an initial unconscious phase and a later phase where i t can become conscious. However, their relationship to consciousness is not determined solely by this belonging. This preconscious system is also called the "preconscious" because it can become conscious under certain conditions. With the acceptance of these psychic systems, psychoanalysis differs from the descriptive psychology of consciousness by adop ting a dynamic conception of mental processes and considering psychic topology. This perspective, known as the psychology of the deep, allows us to better understand how mental processes develop and their relationship to consciousness. If we wish to seriously address the topography of psychic acts, we must face a crucial question: what is the nature of the transposition of a psychic act from an unconscious system to a conscious or preconscious one? Is it a new fixation, a second transcription of the representation in a new psychic locality, or is it rather a change of state within the same material and the sam e locality? This question is complex since it involves both psychological aspects and the relationships of the psychic apparatu s with anatomy. Although we know that soul activity is linked to brain function, we cannot yet determine the precise location of mood process es in the brain. Our research focuses on the regions of the psychic apparatus, regardless of their anatomical location. We are therefore free to proceed according to our needs, remembering that our assumptions are only intended to illustrate and do not claim absolute validity. The first possibility considered, a new transcription of the performance elsewhere, seems the simplest but also the most rudimentary. The second possibility, a change in functional status, is more plausible but more difficult to manage. We cannot distinguish between these possibilities at the moment, but perhaps in the future we will discover factors that tip the balance towards one of them. Perhaps our initial focus is insufficient and the difference between unconscious and conscious representations must be determined differently. IV. TOPIC AND DYNAMICS OF REPRESSION We conclude that repression is essentially a process that affects representations at the boundary between the unconscious and preconscious (conscious) systems. Now, we can try to describe this process further. It appears to be a subtraction of investiture, but we still need to determine in which system this subtraction takes place and to which system the subtracted investiture belongs. When we consider the case of repression proper, it consists in subtracting the preconscious investiture from the representation of the preconscious system. However, this process of libido subtraction does not fully explain another aspect of repression. We need another process that, in some cases, maintains repression and in others produces and maintains it, and we find it in counterinvestiture, which protects the preconscious system against the siege of unconscious representation. Little by little, we have outlined a third point of view in addition to the dynamic and topical one: the economic one, which seeks to follow the fate of the magnitudes of excitement and obtain a relative estimate of them. I propose that when we describe a psychic process in its dynamic, topical, and economic aspects, we call it a metapsychological exposition. However, reaching this level of understanding will only be possible in a few places given the complex nature of psychic phenomena. Let us try to offer a metapsychological description of the process of repression in the three known transference neuroses. We can substitute "investiture" for "libido” since we are referring to the destinies of the sexual drives. 2 Made by MatyBuda In the case of anxiety hysteria, an initial phase of the process is often overlooked, although it is notable for closer obser vation. Distress arises without a perceived cause, suggesting that an emotion of love within the unconscious system attempts to pass into the preconscious system, but the investiture directed at it from this system withdraws as if attempting to escape. The unconscious libidinal investiture of the rejected representation is discharged as anguish. A first step in controlling this distressing development is taken when the fleeing preconscious investiture is directed towards a substitutive representation, which is associated with the rejected representation and, at the same time, moves far enough away from repression, allowing a rationalization of the development of anxiety. In the second phase, the substitutive representation becomes a kind of counter-investiture from the preconscious system to the unconscious. This counter-investiture protects against the emergence of repressed representation in the preconscious system and also acts as a source of release from distress. The process of repression is not yet complete. An additional mechanism is employed to inhibit the development of the distress that originates in the substitutive representation. The whole environment associated with the substitutive representation is charged with a special intensity, so that any excitement in this environment can trigger a small development of distress, which is used as a signal to inhibit its further advancement by a further withdrawal of the preconscious investiture. This mechanism, designed to isolate the substitute representation and to restrict new excitations of it, is called "phobia" and manifests itself in avoidances, renunciations and prohibitions that characterize anxiety hysteria. If we look at the entire process, we can see that the third phase repeats the work of the second, but on a broader scale. The preconscious system now protects itself against the activation of the substitutive representation by the counter-investiture of its environment, similar to how it protected itself against the emergence of the repressed representation by the investiture of the substitutive representation. Thus, substitutive training by posting finds its continuation. Ultimately, the entire phobic parapet becomes an enclave of unconscious influence. This defensive process projects the instinctive danger outwards, allowing the ego to react against an externally perceived danger with escape attempts, manifested in phobic avoidances. Although this process manages to stop the release of anguish, it does so at the expense of personal freedom and with unsatisfactory results. Many of the concepts discussed in anxiety hysteria are relevant to other neuroses, allowing us to focus on the differences an d the role of counterinvestiture. In conversion hysteria, the instinctive investiture of the repressed representation is displaced towards the innervation of the symptom. The role of the counter-investiture of the preconscious system is clear in the formation of the symptom. In obsessional neurosis, the counter-investiture of the preconscious system stands out clearly, since it acts as a reactive formation, procuring the first repression and then controlling the irruption of the repressed representation. This suggests that repression in anxiety hysteria and obsessional neurosis is less effective than in conversion hysteria, due to the predominance of counter-investiture and the lack of adequate discharge. V. THE PARTICULAR PROPERTIES OF THE ICC SYSTEM The distinction between psychic systems reveals unique properties of the Icc system. At the Icc, the agencies representing the drive seek to discharge their investiture, expressing coordinated motions of desire that do not contradict each other. Denial and doubt are alien to the Icc, being introduced by the censorship between Icc and Free. The mobility of the investiture intensities is high, allowing the displacement and condensation of investiture between representations. These processes indicate the timeless character of the Icc, which is not subject to time or to considerations of external reality, but to the pleasure principle. In short, the Icc is characterized by the absence of contradiction, its primary process, its timelessness, and the substitution of the external reality for the psychic. Unconscious processes are only knowable to us through sleep and neuroses when the processes of the Prcc system are moved backwards by a debasement (regression). By themselves, these processes are not knowable and are incapable of existence, since the Prcc superimposed the Icc at an early stage, controlling access to consciousness and motility. The comparison between the Icc and Prcc systems reveals that the latter exhibits an inhibition of the proclivity to discharge of the invested representations, with limited displacements and condensations. The Prcc also establishes a capacity for trade between representations, temporal ordering, censorship, the examination of reality and the principle of reality. In addition, conscious memory seems to rely entirely on Prcc. It is important not to hastily generalize the distribution of p sychic operations in both systems, since in individual development and in animals, the Icc system may have different content and li nks. In addition, in the case of humans, it is possible for both systems to be altered or interchanged with each other, especially in pathological conditions.