Chapter 10. Elements of Psycho-Analysis

In the second paragraph of the last chapter I described behaviour designed to develop thought by the interaction of Ps ⇌ D and objects in external reality that were regarded as β-elements. I likened the process to doodling or writing as a method of evacuating objects that could then be scrutinized or dealt with in some way that would cause them to yield a meaning. This process I have described as part of the development of a capacity for thought (the manipulation of β-elements by the mechanism Ps ⇌ D) may also be regarded as a stage in the development of self-consciousness, for β-elements are felt to contain a part of the personality in their composition. The significance of this will be seen to lie, when we reconsider what the elements of psychoanalysis are, in their supposed possession of characteristics such as greed, love, hate, envy, curiosity. The mechanisms involved in these primitive phenomena can be regarded, at their simplest, as Ps ⇌ D (or fragmentation ↔ integration) and ♀♂ (or expulsion ↔ ingestion). I shall describe these mechanisms now by reformulations in terms of models.

Ps may be regarded as a cloud of particles capable of coming together, D, and D as an object capable of becoming fragmented and dispersed, Ps. Ps, the particles, may be regarded as an uncertainty cloud. These elementary particles may be regarded as closing on to one elementary particle, object, or β-elements, a process that is a particular instance of the general movement represented by → D.

D may be regarded variously as an integrated object, as an agglomeration produced by the convergence of elementary particles on to one particle or β-element, or as an especial instance of integrated object, namely, either ♀ or ♂. It may even be taken to represent the

universe of dispersed fragmentations or elementary particles Ps. That is to say, if the field of fragmentations is the significant feature, then D may represent the whole field of elementary particles.

It will be observed that Ps is