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Article: Principles of Mental Functioning
- Article from:
- International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis
- Author:
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PRINCIPLES OF MENTAL FUNCTIONING
The term
principles
is used to refer to the fundamental postulates or hypotheses proposed by Sigmund Freud to describe the basic laws of the psyche; they provide the basis for ordering mental functioning as a whole and making it intelligible. The two main principles of the psychic apparatus are the pleasure/unpleasure principle and the reality principle; their dialectical relationship and composition explain the organization of psychic dynamics.
The concept of principle does not appear as such in psychoanalytic metapsychology; it is always articulated together with another notion whose essential and organizing characteristics are determined in accordance ...