You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This paper describes the preconscious affective attitude of seriousness as an example of the development of secondarily autonomous functions. Such functions have similarities to both primarily autonomous functions and resolved-conflict characterological formations in several ways. They differ, however, both in the process of their creation and in their amenability to analytic procedures. The primarily autonomous functions, together with the characterological patterns, serve as the basis for decisions and determine tendencies for the preponderance of activities in normal daily life. The psychology of normal functioning must therefore lean heavily on an understanding of the preconscious.
The secondarily autonomous functions are, in this paper, exemplified by the affective attitude of seriousness. The development of seriousness begins in the anlage of self-preservative instincts. Through defusion and elaboration, and either by identification with parent figures and/or through patterns developed in interaction with others, one becomes capable of seriousness. Failure in such development creates a severe pathology, which by its very nature may at worst preclude analysis and at best become a requisite first development in treatment. Maldevelopment of seriousness may occur in several ways. The non-serious may be a result of inability to cathect, a result of defence against seriousness, or one of the forms of pseudo-seriousness outlined earlier.