Discussion

All of the participants take issue with what Freud (e.g., 1915b), called his economic viewpoint; and specifically each author is critical of Freud's (1915a) idea of a psychologically conceived drive investment in the object (representation), so that a satisfactory object relations experience is conceived to tally with the notion of “discharge” with respect to this psychic-energy construct. At this point, I could trot out Freud's own doubts about this discharge formulation (1924), as well as his later formulation of a life instinct (1920); the latter idea is something Loewald (1960) especially realizes represents a basic revision in the discharge concept. Nonetheless, I agree that the overall sense of Freud's writing does expose him to such a criticism; Sandler states it most cogently:

… it is increasingly clear that conceiving of an object relationship as the energetic investment of an object is inadequate and simplistic. … The relationships between two people … involves subtle and complicated cues and signs…. There are unconscious exchanges of messages as well as unconscious experiencing of all sorts of other interactions. Each partner … has a role for the other and negotiates with the other … to get him to respond in a certain way. A whole variety of feelings, wishes, thoughts and expectations are involved … which is