ABSTRACT
In clinical practice, some concepts will always be close to hand. The assumption that there are unconscious mental processes, the recognition of the theory of resistance and repression, the appreciation of the importance of sexuality and of the Oedipus complex— these constitute the principal subject-matter of psycho-analysis and the foundations of its theory. Psychoanalytic theory of the unconscious should be distinguished from what we may call the descriptive unconscious. In the new structural theory the decisive element is no longer where the phenomena belong within the three systems, but which “instance” they belong to; the id, the ego or the superego. Id represents the forces of the drives, the ego stands for the relation to reality, and the superego represents moral prohibitions and ideals. The classical theory postulates that the experience and behaviour that is of psychological interest may be traced back to two drives, sexuality and aggression.
