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preliminary to discussion of her paper
(compressed from paper circulated to Members in June 1943)
Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Since time is short and by the rules we must confine ourselves to our written statements, I shall give a brief summary of the paper that was circulated in June. I am told that it was difficult to read, because it was so compressed, I hope that this will not be difficult to listen to as it is still more compressed.
I shall use the root terms ‘introject’ and ‘project’ when referring to the mental mechanisms which are modelled on and correspond to the bodily experiences of taking in and expelling respectively.
We regard the mind as composed of 3 main parts differentiated by their functions: the id is the source of all instinctual energies; the ego is the interpreter and intermediary between the various parts of the mind and the outside world; the superego is the internalized representative of the most important objects – the parents.
Further, we regard the mind as being capable of change by its contacts. Now, what are the mechanisms by which these alterations are brought about? Freud has given us the answer, and most clearly, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle in 1920. Making an analogy of the mind with a living vesicle, there is a receptive outer layer, which not only wards off but also receives stimuli, it collects information about