ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the topographical frame of reference it considered Sigmund Freud's division of the mental apparatus into three systems, which varied in their "depth" within the mental apparatus. The contents of the Unconscious can be regarded as being composed of unsatisfied instinctual wishes, which are the mental representations of the drives. The instinctual drives are hypothetical constructs and are regarded as being represented in the Unconscious by instinctual wishes. Indeed, the instinctual wish can be viewed as the basic unit in the Unconscious. In the Unconscious the instinctual wishes have a peremptory quality—they seek pleasurable discharge and the reduction of unpleasurable tension at all costs. The Unconscious contains a central core of instinctual wishes related to the most primitive forms of instinctual gratification. In the course of psychoanalytic treatment the development of various forms of transference is regarded as representing derivatives of the Unconscious.
