ABSTRACT
Human mentation, according to Freud, is characterized by two types of functioning, which he called the “primary” and “secondary” processes. These types differ along two related dimensions. One dimension consists of the mode in which desires are satisfied; the other consists of the mode in which thoughts are represented in the mind. This chapter briefly summarizes the differences between these two types of mental representation, as viewed both by Freud and by standard psychoanalytic theory. It argues that some of the critically important features that, according to Freud, uniquely characterize the representation of unconscious thoughts characterize the representation of conscious thoughts as well. If displacement, a characteristic that Freud viewed as the distinctive feature of the primary process mode of mental representation, and tropes, a characteristic of the secondary process, are representational techniques by which thoughts are represented by means of sign substitution, then there are no differences between the primary and secondary processes of mental representation.
