Notes on Metapsychology as Process Theory: Marjorle Brierley. Int. J. Psa., XXV, 1944, pp. 97–107.

Psychoanalysis as a dynamic psychology is not directed toward static description but rather toward the investigation of the laws governing mental processes. "For such a psychology, mind ceases to be a thing, or entity, and becomes a nexus of activities, a sequence of adaptive responses." Since this is the basis of freudian theory, we cannot agree with Mrs. Brierley's formulation: "Indeed, it becomes increasingly evident that every aspect of analytic theory calls for re-examination in the light of process-concepts". We agree, however, that it is useful to examine the dynamic and 'process'-nature of newer theoretical concepts. Mrs. Brierley does so with concepts like 'instinct', 'memory', and 'organization within the mental apparatus' (the repressed, once having been within the realm of the ego, is organized and, therefore, different from id proper). She furthermore investigated the question of whether Melanie Klein's theories withstand such a dynamic test and comes to the conclusion that they do. However, she adds: 'Some of the precocity attributed to the infant as described by Melanie Klein is due to the fact that an adult cannot interpret any infantile experience and make it intelligible to other adults without subjecting the experience itself to some degree of falsification or retrospective sophistication'.