Psychobiology and Psychoanalytic Methodology

Abstract

As stated in the introduction, the major theoretical thrust of this book has been to structure present psychobiological thinking into a well-ordered system that would explain in physiological terms much of normal and neurotic human behavior. In the course of this effort, it became evident that by far the greatest proportion of mental activity takes place at an unconscious level. This conclusion led to a consideration of the various types of unconscious activity—the episodic, the procedural, and the visceral—and of the interactions between them and consciousness. Inevitably it became necessary to compare this psychobiological model with the Freudian model of the dynamic unconscious in terms of structure, function, and significance.