Psychoanalysis in Adults, Theory and Technique

Psychic Determinism

The principle of psychic determinism maintains that no human thought, feeling, or action is random or accidental. Every human choice is instead essentially related to previous thoughts, conflicts, or mental events that precede and determine that choice. For example, forgetting to pick up the milk on the way [Page 886]home from work is not simply a random event. That forgetfulness is likely determined by any number of psychic events, including the wish to be free from responsibility or to retaliate against members of the household who were counting on having milk in the house. These determinants are often out of the conscious awareness of the agent, and if queried about the motive for forgetting to pick up the milk, the respondent would likely attribute it to simple forgetfulness. However, the principle of psychic determinism holds that all action is multiply determined, so that on one level, it may, indeed, be considered simple forgetfulness, but that does not preclude the more significant influence of these other wishes and fears casting meaning on this otherwise random act.

Conscious Awareness and the Unconscious

The second fundamental hypothesis of psychoanalytic theory is the notion that consciousness is an exceptional rather than a regular attribute of psychic processes. As illustrated in the above example, the conscious awareness of forgetfulness is only a surface explanation for the more complete meaning of the event, which can be understood only by access to unconscious processes, for example, through free association. The human experience of acting against reason or better judgment is a prime example of the influence of unconscious processes on behavior.

Drives

Freud (1905) identified the specific aim of these unconscious processes in terms of sexual and, later (1920), aggressive drives. This drive theory maintains that unconscious drives for pleasure (pleasure principle) or aggression motivate all behavior and that they are interwoven, such that sexual and aggressive drives are often operating together in any one act. Moreover, Freud described a typical developmental sequence for these drives, claiming that infantile gratifications and frustrations through psychosexual stages (oral, anal, phallic, oedipal) directly influence healthy and pathological adult psychological functioning.

The Structural Hypothesis

Having formulated these ingredients of unconscious psychic functioning, Freud (1923) elaborated a structural hypothesis, which is the framework for psychoanalytic technique. Freud identified a tripartite intrapsychic structure, composed of the id (the representative of the sexual and aggressive drives), the ego (the mental apparatus that operates according to the reality principle and mediates between the demands of the id and the superego), and the superego (which comprises moral precepts and ideal aspirations, commonly referred to as conscience). Within this model, there is a continuous state of conflict between the demands of the id, the superego, and external reality, and the ego is challenged to construct defenses or compromises (Brenner, 1982) to gratify drives as much as possible without jeopardizing the welfare of the system. The extent to which these compromises are adaptive depends on the strength of the ego and the extent of fixation or developmental frustration of drive gratification. How well these compromises are adaptive will also determine the extent of psychopathology.

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