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March 11, 1958. ON PSYCHOANALYTIC METAPSYCHOLOGY. David Rapaport, Ph.D. and Merton M. Gill, M.D.
A systematic reassessment of the psychoanalytic metapsychology is proposed. Following a historical review of the various meanings given to the term, metapsychology, in Freud's writings, the authors define metapsychology as the study of the assumptions underlying psychoanalytic theory. It consists of propositions stating these assumptions, and gives points of view which guide the analysis of psychoanalytic observations to their full explanation. The need for reassessment is made necessary by the fact that no such systematic statement is extant; that the classic triad of metapsychological points of view (dynamic, topographic, and economic) appears in need of reconsideration as a consequence of the impact of the structural point of view on topography; that the genetic point of view, which is implicit in daily psychoanalytic work, is not included with the classic three in Freud's writings; that increased interest in relationships to reality, initiated by the development of ego psychology, may make necessary the addition of an adaptive point of view; that it would provide a stable set of references against which one can evaluate a variety of shortcomings in psychoanalytic studies which purport to be metapsychological.
The authors propose to replace the topographic point of view (that the mental apparatus is described in terms of the systems Ucs, Pcs, and Percept-Cs) by the structural (Id, Ego, Superego). This change is advocated on the following grounds: analytic observations indicate the existence of forces which are in opposition to the id, and which produce powerful effects, and which nevertheless remain unconscious, so that the proposition that neurosis is a conflict between Ucs and Cs becomes untenable; also the topographical concept allows no room for ego autonomy or for the origin of mental processes elsewhere than from the id.
The inclusion of the genetic point of