On the Nature and Organization of the Repressed

In a previous paper (Slap & Saykin, 1983) we described a model of the mind intended to resolve certain logical difficulties with the structural model and to make theory more consonant with clinical experience. We think this model has two significant advantages: first, it provides a superior way to account for the manner in which the psychic apparatus interacts with external events, and second, it organizes the psychoanalytic data in a way that clarifies the nature of intrapsychic conflict. The concepts of repression and defense, the infantile neurosis, transference, interpretation, and working through were discussed in the context of this model. In the present paper we focus on the concept of repression and particularly on the organization of the repressed.

We begin by considering the current problematic status of the structural theory, more specifically the division of the mind into the three macrostructures: the id, the ego, and the superego. While psychoanalysts in general will claim allegiance to this model of the