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Cordelia Schmidt-Hellerau is a training and supervising analyst of the Boston Psychoanalytical Society and Institute and the Swiss Psychoanalytic Society. She has written extensively on metapsychology and drive theory. The updated version of Life Drive & Death Drive, Libido & Lethe consists of both summary and clarification of Freud’s own writings as well as Schmidt-Hellerau’s additional theories and concepts. The result is a challenging and innovative review as well as a revival of the original metapsychology. The new model brings a different understanding of the structures, mechanisms and developmental processes of the psyche.
In the introduction, Schmidt-Hellerau gives the reader an overview of debates and critiques regarding the psychoanalytical metapsychology. The creative potential, still evident in Freud’s theories and metapsychology today, is presented as one of the major reasons to attempt to formulate a new metapsychology that aims to solve some previous problems that led it to be regarded as contradictory or inconsistent. Several questions about the possible purpose and function of metapsychology within the field of psychoanalysis are raised, all clarifying the need to review parts of Freud’s metapsychology and to make it a better fit with modern scientific findings in other fields.
The book consists of three major parts. Part one consists of a foundation of the model, where Schmidt-Hellerau walks the reader through Freud’s early writings from 1895 to 1905. Their fundamental assumptions, principles and systems are presented. The book follows a general structure by which the reader is guided through different stages of theory formation; the concepts and structures grow to be increasingly complex and interconnected with each other in ways that enable them to perform different functions. The reader is introduced to core concepts such as “drive theory” and “homeostasis”. Part two focuses on the elaboration of the model, with special attention to the writings of