Early psychoanalytic theory of perception stressed the dynamic point of view, but a comprehensive picture of perception must include economic as well as structural aspects. Freeman believes that Freud's metapsychological approach to perception is suitable for examination of psychoanalytic and psychological hypotheses. Hartmann has suggested that perception has an autonomous, conflict-free origin. Recognition by psychoanalysts of this autonomous development of the perceptual apparatus offers a rapprochement with psychological theories stressing the formal aspects of perception. Experimental work by Werner, Beams and Thompson, McGinnies, and others confirms the existence of preconscious perception, a finding consonant with psychoanalytic theory which states that perception, like any other mental process, first goes through an unconscious phase. We no longer believe that the person is first stimulated, then perceives, and finally