Chapter 3. The Unconscious (1915) of Papers on Metapsychology - Study Guide by Sigmund Freud

two states of cathectic energy - one which is bound and another which is 'free'. Furthermore, in comparison to the Ucs, it is in the Pcs. that the ideational contents can influence each other and be censored etc. however again al of these conclusions have been drawn from observation of humans, and Freud notes that it would be valuable to assess the significance of these ideas with respect to animals, as well as other human pathological conditions.

6. Communication Between the Two Systems

Freud argues that it is incorrect to argue that the Ucs. is at rest whilst the Pcs. performs the work of the mind, nor can it be said that their communication is confined to the act of repression. Rather, the Ucs. is alive and can maintain a number of relations with the Pcs. e.g. co-operation. In sum, the Ucs. is continued into 'derivatives', and that it is accessible to the impressions of life and that it constantly influences the Pcs. and even vice versa.

These ideas are supported by the fact that the derivatives of the Ucs. are not predictably clear- cut from those of the Pcs. This is found especially in the fact that some derivatives of the Ucs. become conscious as substitutive formations and symptoms - on the other hand many preconscious formations remain unconscious despite their nature which implies that they would become conscious - from these observations Freud proposes that the important distinctions are not between the conscious and preconscious, but between the unconscious and the preconscious. Despite this he maintains that there are two censorships from Ucs. to Cs. - the first between Ucs. and Pcs. And a second between Pcs. and Cs, through which the contents pass, being partly derived from instinctual life (throught the medium of the Ucs.) and partly from perception. Consistent with his use of neuroses as evidence - he supports this with the idea that in illness, these two are severely divergent. Freud concludes this section, with ideas about the cooperation that exists between the Pcs. and Ucs. impulse, concluding that the final sharp division between the content of the two systems does not take place until puberty.

7. Assessment of the Unconscious

In his final section, Freud reviews his work thus far and proposes that from drawing upon dream-life and neuroses alone, he has got as far as he can, in describing the Ucs. He then looks at various cases of schizophrenia (Bleuler) or 'dementia praecox' as Kraeplin termed it, especially noting the work of Abraham (1908) and the antithesis between ego and object. Having described various case studies, he concludes that as regards schizophrenia, he is unsure as to whether the process here termed repression has anything at all in common with the repression that takes place in the transference neuroses - or even be a modified version of the formula of repression that occurs between the Ucs. and Pcs.. Rather he only describes schizophrenics' mode of thought in terms of his treatment of concrete things as though they were abstract and omits other possibilities and their relation to the assessment of the Ucs.