ABSTRACT
Psychical states are reflections of material elements subject to the laws of motion, in Sigmund Freud's theory. The paradox in Freud's work is that while he refused to study motivation in terms of symbols, he often illustrated what he had studied and conclusions he had reached, through illustrations drawn from symbolic works. After 1900, Freud's descriptions of psychic function are drawn in forensic, dramatic, and conversational images. Freud's psychology is a family psychology, and in so far as it deals with communication it is communication between parents and children that Freud uses as a model. The development of sociology of language, and specifically of the unconscious aspects of social communication, must be undertaken by sociologists themselves. If cathexis is a mechanical process, it cannot be explained by nonmechanical events; and if communication is not mechanical, it cannot be explained by mechanics.
