Abstract
This paper presents a mathematical model for cognitive aspects of Freud’s primary process based upon equivalence relationships and their induced partitions of the sets on which they are defined into equivalence classes. The object of study is Freud’s original concept of the primary process. The model implies that a cognitive aspect of Freud’s secondary process is a limiting form of the primary and that both processes use the same the logic, with their difference located in the kind of objects to which their shared logic is applied. The unified model of the two processes is applied to transference and to object representations.
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Notes
Italics in the original.
It is necessary to give a specified time in order for S to be well defined.
Italics in original.
Since the secondary process can take place consciously the quantity \(\mathrm{j}-(\mathrm{n}_{\mathrm{w}}+1)/2\) may also be something of a threshold for the passing from unconscious to conscious processing.
Although a transference is driven by a wish it nevertheless attracts both positive and negative affects from the subject to the analyst, the latter rooted in early life frustration and trauma.
The background issues are that the stable memory representation of O is not yet affected and that a dedifferentiated representation of O may be necessary for later aspects of transference as well for later adaptations outside the transference.
References
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Anthony F. Badalamenti consults at Scientific Support as a mathematician in psychiatry and medicine and has a private practice in psychoanalysis.
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Badalamenti, A.F. A mathematical form of Freud’s primary process. Qual Quant 50, 591–604 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-015-0165-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-015-0165-5