ABSTRACT
The psychoanalytic psychology of the second phase was developed by Sigmund Freud over a much longer period of time, spanning the quarter of a century from 1897 to 1923. From the clinical viewpoint the initiation of the second phase involved the abandonment in 1897 of the hypothesis that adult neuroses could be traced back to experiences of early sexual seduction. Throughout the second phase the fundamental function of the mental apparatus was seen as that of harnessing the instinctual drives and the wishes that represented them. During the long second phase the mental apparatus was seen in terms of one or other variant of the "topographical" model. This model derives its name from Freud's attempts to describe the "topography" of the mind, with emphasis on the psychological interrelationships and the interaction of qualitatively different strata of the apparatus. The topographical viewpoint evolved in relation to the clinical method of the second phase of psychoanalysis.
