ABSTRACT
The body of theory has shifted from a biological and intrapsychic understanding of the human mind and human behaviour, to a developmental focus, and more recently, to an interpersonal/relational and intersubjective focus. In the United States America USA, psychoanalysis became a major force within psychiatry. Unlike in the British Society, only medical professionals could train then as psychoanalysts. Psychoanalysis in the USA was first influenced by Freud’s visit to the States in 1909. The topographical model depicts the mind as divided into three different systems: the systems unconscious, pre-conscious and conscious. The id is the basic, primitive part of the mind, mostly in the unconscious, which contains the instinctual drives. The superego refers to conscience and ideals. The structural model of the mind does not supersede the topographical model, nor does it map directly onto the later model. The oral stage of development occurs in the first year of life when the infant’s libidinal energy is focused on the mouth.
