Primal repression and the origin of mental life

Journal title PSICOANALISI
Author/s Jasminka Suljagic
Publishing Year 2023 Issue 2023/1
Language Italian Pages 15 P. 83-97 File size 192 KB
DOI 10.3280/PSI2023-001006
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Primal repression, D.: Urverdrängung, is a concept belonging to the realm of metapsy-chological necessities, of the first structuralisation and construction of the mental system. It was postulated by Freud (1911, 1915, 1926, 1937) to retrospectively explain the mechanism of repression (repression proper) as a movement of attraction by something which is already there. Contrary to repression proper/secondary repression, D.: Nachdrängen, the “cornersone” of psychoanalytic thinking, the concept of primal repression stays partly forgotten, partly in-comprehensible, even though its underlying conceptualisations have been attracting increased attention over the years. This paper approaches that realm by investigating representability and unrepresentable, dynamic: action – representation, and the birth of psychic from the requirements of work. The first internal duality and the first bond are introduced into psychic life by the processes of pri-mal repression, a tension between regressive attraction and the formation-reconstruction of psychic processes. Clinical material is presented as an illustration.

Keywords: primal repression, drives, psychic work, representability, regression, formation.

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Jasminka Suljagic, La rimozione originaria e l’inizio della vita psichica in "PSICOANALISI" 1/2023, pp 83-97, DOI: 10.3280/PSI2023-001006