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Masling's Empirical Studies of Psychoanalytic Theories, Volume 2, consists of seven chapters. With one exception, each author reviews his or her own programmatic research, along with related empirical and theoretical findings. This was also the format in Volume 1. I found a commonality in these contributions—representing as they do vital, but varied approaches to experimental psychoanalytic psychology—an interest in the question: What is the nature and the development of thinking and how does it vary in psychopathological states?
The early Freud established a portion of the conscious ego as the developing organ of thinking. But like the Devil in Milton, Freud's Unconscious was clearly the most interesting character even in a theory of thought, organizing experience from birth, but not in an orderly and morally proper manner. Unconscious processes pay “little regard to reality. They are subject to the pleasure principle; their fate depends only on how strong they are and on whether they fulfill the demands of the pleasure-unpleasure regulation.” (Freud, 1915, p. 187, as quoted by Weiss & Sampson, p. 4).
In Freud's later theorizing the unconscious, while still contrasted to the thinking ego, was attributed a wider variety of maturational and homeostatic mental functions. Further, rather than being solely id motivated, the unconscious was also motivated by forces emanating from the ego or superego. For instance, the unconscious may stimulate repetitive behavior for the