Psychic Reality and Psychoanalysis: A Look Through the Theory of Metaphor

This paper studies both the object of psychoanalysis (i.e., the definition of psychic reality) and the way in which psychoanalysis investigates this very same object. Beginning with a review of Freud's conception of the psychoanalytic object, the author presents a structural as well as functional model of psychic reality. Applying the theory of metaphor, the author explores four aspects of psychoanalysis and its object. First, psychic reality is discussed as becoming manifest only through a combinatory activity analogous to that in metaphorization. Second, the specificity of psychoanalysis is presented through the “direction” of the metaphors this discipline uses as investigatory instruments; while general science uses metaphors and models to investigate an “outer” reality (i.e., what lies “before” one) psychoanalysis uses metaphors to investigate what produces these constructions (i.e., what is “behind” the metaphors). Third, the economic and energetic concepts in psychoanalytic theory are defended as explaining the nature of “reality” in

psychic reality. Fourth, the psychoanalytic process is discussed as a process in which a living metaphorizing activity can come about in practice.