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THE UNCONSCIOUS (CHAPTERS II, IV, V, AND VII)
Sigmund Freud (1915)

Summary:
II
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There are various psychic acts that share the characteristic of being unconscious, from
those that are barely latent to repressed processes
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Therefore, we often use the terms "conscious" and "unconscious" in a
descriptive and systematic way, which can cause confusion
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However, their relationship to consciousness is not determined solely by this belonging
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With the acceptance of these psychic systems, psychoanalysis differs from the descriptive psychology of consciousness by adopting
a dynamic conception of mental processes and considering psychic topology
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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 same
locality? This question is complex since it involves both psychological aspects and the relationship of the psychic apparatus with
anatomy
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Our research focuses on the regions of the psychic apparatus, regardless of their anatomical location
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The first possibility considered, a re-transcription of the representation elsewhere, seems the simplest but also the most
rudimentary
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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
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IV
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Now, we can try to describe this process further
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When we consider the case of repression proper, it consists in removing the preconscious investiture from the representation of
the preconscious system
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We need
another process which, in some cases, maintains repression and in others produces and maintains it, and we find it in the counterinvestiture, which protects the preconscious system against the siege of unconscious representation
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I propose that when we describe a psychic
process in its dynamic, topical, and economic aspects, we call it a metapsychological exposition
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Let us attempt to give a metapsychological description of the process of repression in the three known transference neuroses
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1
Made by MatyBuda

In the case of panic hysteria, an initial phase of the process is often overlooked, although it is noticeable for more careful
observation
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The
unconscious libidinal investiture of the rejected representation is discharged as anguish
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In the second phase, the substitutionary representation becomes a kind of counter-investiture from the preconscious system to
the unconscious
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The process of repression is not yet complete
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The whole environment associated with the substitutionary 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 advance by a further withdrawal of the preconscious investiture
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If we look at the full process, we can see that the third phase repeats the work of the second, but on a larger scale
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Thus, substitutionary training by displacement finds its continuation
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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
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Many of the concepts discussed in panic hysteria are relevant to other neuroses, allowing us to focus on differences and the role
of counter-investiture
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The role of the counter-investiture of the preconscious system is clear in the formation of the symptom
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This suggests that repression in
panic hysteria and obsessive neurosis is less effective than in conversion hysteria, due to the predominance of counter-investiture
and the lack of adequate discharge
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THE PARTICULAR PROPERTIES OF THE ICC SYSTEM
The distinction between psychic systems reveals unique properties of the Icc system
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Denial
and doubt are alien to the Icc, being introduced by the censorship between Icc and Free
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These processes indicate the timelessness
of the Icc, which is not subject to time or considerations of external reality, but to the pleasure principle
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Unconscious processes are only knowable to us through sleep and neuroses when the processes of the Prcc system are moved
backwards by a regression
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Comparison between the Icc and Prcc systems reveals that the latter exhibits an inhibition of the proclivity to discharge of invested
representations, with limited displacements and condensations
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In addition, conscious memory seems to depend entirely on Prcc
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Moreover, in the case of man, it is possible for both systems to be altered or exchanged with each other, especially under
pathological conditions
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THE DISCERNMENT OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
If we ask ourselves what makes the substitutionary formation and symptom of schizophrenia strange, we realize that it is the
predominance of the reference to the word over the reference to the thing
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Word-representations come from sense-perception in the same way as thing-representations, which raises the question of why
object-representations cannot become conscious by means of their own perceptual remains
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The connection with words can give quality even to those investitures which could not acquire any quality from perceptions, since
the relations between object-representations become apprehensible by words
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Explanation and conclusion:
The text deals with the complexity of psychic processes, especially in relation to the unconscious and consciousness
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Although it would be useful to dispense
with the distinction between conscious and unconscious, in practice it is complicated, which can cause confusion when using the
terms descriptively and systematically
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The idea of a perspective known as the psychology of the deep is introduced, which allows for
a better understanding of how mental processes develop and their relationship to consciousness
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Possibilities about this process
are discussed, but no definitive conclusion has yet been reached
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This process is described in detail and the idea of a third point of view, the economic one, is introduced,
which seeks to follow the fate of the excitation magnitudes
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The peculiarity
of the reference to the word about the thing in schizophrenia is addressed, and the question is raised as to why some
representations cannot become conscious on their own
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In short, the text highlights the complexity of psychic processes, especially in relation to the unconscious and consciousness
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Reflection on repression and the properties of the Icc system leads us to a better understanding of the
dynamics of the human mind
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Main Ideas:
- The condition of the unconscious as a superficial facet of the psyche
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- The difficulty of completely dispensing with the distinction between conscious and unconscious in practice
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- The consideration of the preconscious system and its ability to become conscious under certain conditions
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- The complexity of transposing a psychic act from an unconscious system to a conscious or preconscious one
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- Possible explanations for the transposition of psychic acts between systems
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- The metapsychological description of the process of repression in known transference neuroses
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- The comparison between the Icc and Prcc systems
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- The decomposition of the conscious-representation into word-representation and thing-representation
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- The turning away from our genuine subject to the problems of the preconscious and the conscious

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