Primary process in metapsychology and cognitive psychology

Abstract

The metapsychology of classical psychoanalysis has aroused critical comments from many sides. The present paper challenges the project of Wilma Bucci, a cognitive psychologist, who has made a systematic attempt of reformulating Freud's theory in harmony with cognitive science and contemporary empirical research. The discussion focusses on the concept of primary process and the cognitive alternative: subsymbolic process using as standard of comparison the dream and the creative work of the artist. The main consideration of this paper is, that whereas Freud built his theory of the dream and of creativity on the idea of wishful hallucination, cognitive psychology takes as a starting point the world of perception. This means in short, that the process of dreaming and of creation according to cognitive thinking moves in a forward progression using the information of the senses as building blocks for symbolisations, while the classical theory takes as point of departure a gap between perception and representation. The dream and the act of creation are processes creating out of this gap the world of lost happiness or satisfaction.

Key words:

• primary process
• sub-symbolic process
• perception
• hallucination