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This paper stems from a reappraisal of Freudian metapsychology (and in particular of the first topic); our initial stimulus was the feeling of returning to familiar and deeply assimilated terrain that we experienced whilst reading Autopoiesis and Cognition by H. Maturana and F. Varela (1980).
We pay particular attention to the first Freudian topic because it expresses concepts that are fundamental to the theoretic core of psychoanalysis and because, moreover, it formulates a model of the psychic apparatus in systemic terms; our research and theorization have always made use of systemic considerations. Furthermore, in this hypothesis the psychic apparatus is equipped with qualities that establish it more clearly as an autonomous system. We find that it is richer in informative potential, and endowed with a greater scope for development, than is the second freudian metapsychological hypothesis, insofar as the definition of structure and function in the former appears to be more open-ended. Finally, the first hypothesis functionally introduces the economic point of view, which is also central to our research.