Quantitative Research On the Primary Process: Method and Findings

Abstract

Freud always defined the primary process metapsychologically, but he described the ways it shows up in dreams, parapraxes, jokes, and symptoms with enough observational detail to make it possible to create an objective, reliable scoring system to measure its manifestations in Rorschach responses, dreams, TAT stories, free associations, and other verbal texts. That system can identify signs of the thinker's efforts, adaptive or maladaptive, to control or defend against the emergence of primary process. A prerequisite and a consequence of the research that used this system was clarification and elaboration of the psychoanalytic theory of thinking. Results of empirical tests of several propositions derived from psychoanalytic theory are summarized. Predictions concerning the method's most useful index, of adaptive vs. maladaptive regression, have been repeatedly verified: People who score high on this index (who are able to produce well-controlled "primary products" in their Rorschach responses), as compared to those who score at the maladaptive pole (producing primary-process-filled responses with poor reality testing, anxiety, and pathological defensive efforts), are better able to tolerate sensory deprivation, are more able to enter special states of consciousness comfortably (drug-induced, hypnotic, etc.), and have higher achievements in artistic creativity, while schizophrenics tend to score at the extreme of maladaptive regression. Capacity for adaptive regression also predicts success in psychotherapy, and rises with the degree of improvement after both psychotherapy and drug treatment. Some predictive failures have been theoretically interesting: Kris's hypothesis about creativity and the controlled use of primary process holds for males but usually not for females. This body of work is presented as a refutation of charges, brought by such critics as Crews, that psychoanalysis cannot become a science.

Empirical evidence for Freud's theory of primary process mentation in acute psychosis.

“…This also coheres with Holt (2002)"s general conclusion, resulting from a review of fourteen empirical studies based on Holt"s PRIPRO-system in Rorschach protocols in schizophrenia. Although the results are somewhat scattered, Holt (2002: 474) concludes that, on the whole, they support the psychoanalytic expectation that schizophrenia is "accompanied by the disruptive emergence of primary process thinking into conscious thought".…”

Assessing the inter-method reliability and correlational validity of the Body Type Dictionary

“…For example, results from a cognitive categorisation test measuring attributional and relational similarities that mapped onto primordial and conceptual thought principles showed a simultaneous increase in primordial process categorisation and levels of anxiety in anxious individuals (Brakel and Shevrin, 2005;Kleinman and Russ, 1988), which confirms the Freudian psychoanalytic assumption that overwhelming anxiety leads to an increase in primordial process activity as a regressive defence mechanism (Freud, 1926). One of the most consistent findings suggests that creative individuals, particularly men, have controlled access to primordial cognition and score higher on adaptive regression and defensive effectiveness than less creative individuals (Kris 1952;Holt 2002). A positive relation between creativity and thought suppression (Merkelbach, Horselenberg and Muris, 2001) has been identified that might be related to dissociations regarding trauma experiences (Van den Hout et al, 1996;Muris and Merckelbach, 1997).…”

Les processus primaires et secondaires selon Freud : actualité et pertinence du concept et de sa mesure pour la clinique

“…Spé cifiquement, Freud (1900Freud ( /2003 suggè re que la pré dominance du processus primaire é merge avec un Moi moins fonctionnel : il serait non fonctionnel dans l'inconscient (Freud, 1895(Freud, /1956) ; immature en dé but de vie (Freud, 1900(Freud, /2003 ; et structurellement mis à mal dans la ré gression anxieuse (Freud, 1895(Freud, /19561926/2015) ou dans la psychose (Freud, 1895(Freud, /19561900/2003. Jusqu'à pré sent, le GeoCat met en é vidence une mobilisation plus importante de ré ponses ATT dans tous les cas de figure pressentis par Freud (respectivement Brakel et al, 2000, 2002Brakel et Shevrin, 2005 ;Bazan et al, 2013). Nous dé velopperons particuliè rement le cas de la psychose qui a é té é tudié empiriquement à plusieurs reprises (Parrent, 2011 ;Bazan et al, 2013).…”