Metapsychology or metapsychologies? Some comments on Paul Denis's paper ‘The drive revisited: mastery and satisfaction’

Abstract

In this commentary on Paul Denis's paper ‘The drive revisited: mastery and satisfaction’, the author defends the idea of a plurality of metapsychologies that must be contrasted with and distinguished from each other while avoiding incompatible translations between models. In this connection he presents various theoretical approaches to aggression and the death drive, and demonstrates the differences between the drive model and the model underlying the theory of internalized object relations. The author holds that the concept of the internal object differs from Freud's notion of the representation (Vorstellung). He also considers that the imago as defined by Paul Denis in fact corresponds to the concept of the internal object. Lastly, he addresses the complex issue of listening to archaic forms of psychic functioning and their non‐discursive presentation within the analytic process, which affects the transference‐countertransference link.

Key words:

• metapsychology
• model
• death drive
• representation
• internal object relations theory
• Agieren
• enactment
• psychic gesture

1. Translated by Philip Slotkin MA Cantab.

1. Translated by Philip Slotkin MA Cantab.

Notes

1. Translated by Philip Slotkin MA Cantab.

2. [Translator's note: For convenience, the masculine form is used for both sexes throughout this translation.]

3. Freud had earlier maintained that splitting of the ego was not necessarily pathological: ‘[&] it will be possible for the ego to avoid a rupture in any direction by deforming itself, by submitting to encroachments on its own unity and even perhaps by effecting a cleavage or division of itself’ (1924, pp. 152–153).