Consciousness in Psychoanalytic Theory: Some Implications for Current Research in Perception

By now psychoanalytic theory has touched almost every frontier of psychological inquiry. Many and deep sophistications have been wrought in the tripartite model of ego, superego, and id, so that it is easier to make contact with other theories and with data about the most disparate psychological functions. In turn, as psychoanalytic theory accommodates itself to the newer developments and to different sources of new data, an even greater modification of its earlier terms and propositions must occur. The parochial reliance of psychoanalysis upon data of the consulting room is lessening; psychoanalytic theory has become a more gracious host to information-bearers from many settings—including those from the laboratory. An outcome of this has been a more explicit concern with psychoanalysis as a general theory of behavior rather than exclusively as a therapeutic or so-called "clinical" one.

The most striking extensions of the theory have occurred on the issues of adaptation and reality testing. Rapaport (39) and Gill (18) propose, for instance, that to the requirements of a complete psychoanalytic account of an item of behavior, the "adaptational point of view" must be added. This emphasis has catalyzed a growing interest in the mechanics of thought and perception