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Psychoanalytic conceptualizations of the psychopathology of the psychoses derive mainly from several papers written by Freud between 1910 and 1915. In these papers one can observe how Freud emphasized the use of two concepts in order to understand the clinical phenomena of the psychoses. The first of these was the concept of narcissism which he had only recently formulated. The second was the concept of libido economy, that is, the distribution of quantities of psychic (libidinal) energies and how they affect mental functioning.
Through these new concepts, Freud provided a frame of reference which illuminated many features of the psychoses and which brought neurosis and psychosis under the same general theory of mental functioning. To be able to fit psychotic disturbances into the context of the individual's life as he had done in the case of dreams and neurotic symptoms was truly a remarkable, if not a revolutionary, achievement.
Subsequently, however, Freud introduced many changes and additions to the general structure of psychoanalytic theory. These were far-reaching in their effects and have since come to be referred to as the structural theory. The main features of these changes include the concept of the superego, aggression as an instinctual drive comparable to libido, the central mediating role of the ego, the notion of a wide range of ego defences and the presently accepted concept of the nature of intrapsychic conflict, a concept in which the recognition of anxiety as a signal of danger plays a central role. Freud wrote a few papers in which he applied some of these new concepts to certain aspects of the psychopathology of the psychoses, and many other authors, too numerous to mention individually, have contributed along the same lines. These authors have deepened our grasp of the many theoretical problems and of the numerous questions yet unsolved which pertain to the psychoses. Stimulated by these new concepts, many psychoanalysts began to treat p