ABSTRACT
Inhibitions refer to simple limitations or restrictions of functions, either precautionary or due to energy impoverishment, whereas symptoms refer to a more extensive and severe impairment of function. Freud described here in structural terms what he had described previously in nonstructural terms. Symptoms represent or consist of undischarged, unsatisfied instinctual impulses that have been repressed by the ego at the behest of the superego because the instinctual drive causes disturbances and thus unpleasure to the ego. The anxiety signal of distress by the ego is activated. Like other affects, anxiety is a precipitate of primal traumatic experiences that is, "memory symbols" that have come to be used as signals, warning against the danger that a traumatic state might be repeated. The original primal repressions are wallings-off of infantile sexual and aggressive drives prior to the establishment of the superego. Symptoms involve other, more complex processes and structures, especially transferences.
