ABSTRACT
Although Freud never elaborated his aside that the primary process concept might be the basis for a model of psychosis, it is his chronologically first and ultimately most fruitful model. It suffers from confusions and contradictions having to do with whether the primary process is a normal or pathological mental operation, whether it is conscious or unconscious, and whether it is a qualitatively different way mind works or simply an arcane version of symbolic thought. Starting with Melanie Klein a number of theorists have proposed models of psychosis that are quite similar to those of Freud, flaws and all, but use idiosyncratic conceptual schemata and fail to give credit to Freud’s original contribution.
