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In his introduction to this volume, the editor envisions its task as follows: to '… discover the gaps and bits of paste among the
Freudian gems and begin the task of fashioning conceptually satisfactory inserts for the places where they are needed'.
The bits of paste the editor alludes to seem to be, in order of significance: 1, the concept of psychic energy and the economic viewpoint; 2, the concept of a 'psychic unconscious'; 3, drive theory. Thus the volume opens with an extremely difficult paper by Benjamin Rubinstein which the editor regards as the keynote article of the volume. In this paper, in which an attempt is made to derive a theory of motivation conceptualized purely in 'structural' terms and unencumbered by drive and dynamic considerations, the 'gems' Dr. Rubinstein offers us in exchange for this 'Freudian paste' are 'protoneurophysiological' concepts and information theory as a substitute for the concept of displacement of psychic energy. Dr. Rubinstein is hampered in doing away completely with the concept of psychic energy because he is forced to assume 'infinitesimal amounts of energy used in transmitting information'. Since a crucial consequence of Freud's structural hypothesis is that as structure is formed the amounts of energy utilized in mental operations become tiny, one wonders how Dr. Rubinstein will explain the reappearance of energy in his theory. However, he seems to feel no need to explain it or even mention it, which, considering the hypothesis he has undertaken to sell, seems relatively prudent.
In a different section of his paper titled, The Nonexistential and the Existential Interpretations of Metapsychological Theoretical Terms and Hypotheses, the author informs us in no uncertain terms that the conception of psychoanalytic theory as a purely psychological theory has never been carried through consistently. Then he adds in italics 'nor can it be!'. The reason it can not be, it turns out, is because it then would not take th