Psychoanalysis and Cognitive Psychology

Psychoanalysis and Cognitive Psychology: A Formalization of Freud's Earliest Theory is an attempt to translate psychoanalytic theory into a computer model—a model psychoanalysts will accept as accurately mirroring Freud's theory, while at the same time satisfying the demands made upon any formal model within contemporary psychology. Given the vast extent and the continued development of psychoanalytic theory, the present study focuses on Freud's earliest theory. In a sense, this limitation is a natural one. Anyone really wishing to come to grips with psychoanalytic theory will listen to Freud's advice and follow the path he himself took. In his earliest theory, the theory of abreaction, Freud lays the foundation for all of his later work. Here, for the first time, we encounter concepts—psychical conflict, repression, unconscious ideas, the principle of constancy—which have proved decisive for the development of psychoanalytic theory. Moreover, this was the period during which Freud himself was obsessed by the idea of representing his theory in a single, coherent model, much as in natural science. The present monograph may be regarded as a belated effort to realize the ideal that Freud had in mind in his Project for a Scientific Psychology: a psychology in which psychical processes are represented in such a manner that they become ""perspicuous and free from contradiction"".