Jonah Bossewitch	September 25, 1995

PSY 365	Professor Sugarman

Formulations Regarding the Two Principles in Mental Functioning

In this paper Freud offers an explanation of the development of consciousness in human beings. He describes the transition between being governed by the pleasure principle, and being governed by the reality principle. Along the way, Freud claims that we must first develop the functions of attention and memory trace. Freud also maintains that a part of ourselves never undergoes this transformation, and is forever governed by the pleasure principle. This part of ourselves continues to exist in fantasy, as opposed to reality, and is currently called the imagination. It is responsible for both night dreams and day dreams and Freud claims that its sole function is wish fulfillment and that it is never based in reality. However, recent research into the origins of conceptual revolutions shows that many discoveries can be traced to dreams, waking hallucinations and moments of revelation. Doesn't this fact challenge Freud's underlying assumption that "every neurosis has the result, and therefore probably the purpose, of forcing the patient out of real life, of alienating him from actuality"? It seems as if some neurotic symptoms actually bring the patients closer to "reality" depending on how we choose to define if.