The Priority of Primary Process Categorizing: Experimental Evidence Supporting a Psychoanalytic Developmental Hypothesis

Brakel, Linda A. W.; Shevrin, Howard; Villa, Karen Klein

doi:10.1177/00030651020500020701

Cited by 36 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks (WSR) test (WSRZ=-3.043, p=.002), and Sign (S) test (SZ=-2.626, p=.009) show that ATTs predominate over RELs to a significant degree. The psychiatric patients are compared with a normal non-psychiatric population of a previous study called LifeCat in which the GeoCat was administered in exactly the same manner (Brakel et al, 2002), In this study, the distribution was already also non-normal but conformed to an inverse J-curve (KSZ=4.634; p<.001; see Figure 1 …”

Section: Attributional Responses In Psychiatric Versus Non-psychiatrimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Building on previous work (Brakel, 2009;Brakel, Shevrin, & Villa, 2002;Brakel, 2004;Brakel & Shevrin, 2005;Vanheule, Roelstraete, Geerardyn, Murphy, Bazan, & Brakel, 2011), this empirical study proposes to test if there is predominance of primary process mentation in psychosis as was proposed by Freud by applying a new method that has shown promise in mapping primary and secondary processes, called the GeoCat, an abbreviation of "Geometric Categorisaton" (Brakel, Kleinsorge, Snodgrass, & Shevrin, 2000; see further) in a population of psychiatric patients.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Bazan¹,

Draege²,

Kock³

et al. 2013

Psychoanalytic Psychology

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) has proposed that primary process functioning is typical for acute psychosis. A non-verbal method, the "Geocat" (Brakel, Kleinsorge, Snodgrass and Shevrin, 2000), measures primary processes operationalised as attributional categorisation, which considers exemplars as similar if particular features match, even if these components are arranged in a quite different configuration. With the use of GeoCat we explored primary process mentation in 127 psychiatric patients. Results show that (1) there are substantially higher levels of attributional choices in our sample of psychiatric patients, independently of diagnosis, than in a non-patient population; (2) psychotic patients tend to have more attributional choices than non-psychotic patient; patients with acute psychotic symptoms show more attributional responses than patients without acute psychotic symptoms; (3) this increase of attributional choices with the psychotic condition is independent of self-rated anxiety or medication intake. We propose that, instead, this increase of attributional levels in the acutely psychotic patients reflects a predominance of primary processing which is specifically tied to the acutely psychotic condition, as proposed by Freud.

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Section: Attributional Responses In Psychiatric Versus Non-psychiatrimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Bazan¹,

Draege²,

Kock³

et al. 2013

Psychoanalytic Psychology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, experimental studies employing non-verbal tasks to measure primary and secondary processes have shown that primary process thinking predominates in pre-schoolers and that at the age of seven years old, a shift occurs to secondary process thinking (Brakel & Shevrin, 2005;Brakel, Shevrin, & Villa, 2002).…”

Section: Body Boundaries and Primordial Mental Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Lexical Tendencies of High and Low Barrier Personalities in Narratives of Everyday and Dream Memories

Cariola

2014

Imagination, Cognition and Personality

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The use of computerized content analysis has encouraged great interest in the assessment of personality. Given the psychological importance of body boundaries in the maintenance and regulation of the self, this study aimed to assess the lexical tendencies of High and Low Barrier personalities (Fisher & Cleveland, 1956, 1958), as measured using the BTD (Wilson, 2006), with regard to lexical frequencies, as classified by the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) (Pennebaker, Booth, & Francis, 2007). Consistent with previous research that has identified an association between body boundary imagery and regressive cognitive functioning in autobiographical memories, the results of this study showed that High Barrier personalities used higher frequencies of semantic content associated with primordial mental activity, such as group references, somatosensory processes, and spatial references. In contrast, Low Barrier personalities showed increased use of semantic content related to conceptual thought, such as self-reference, as well as affective and cognitive processes. The discussion conceptualizes the identified lexical tendencies in High and Low Barrier personalities by drawing on various cognitive and social psychological theories.

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“…Such a reexamination would necessarily have to address the evidence for primary process as exemplifying early childhood thinking and, consequently, as manifest in unconscious fantasies. Nevertheless, one still finds writers who retain much of Freud's original claim that the primary process, as described in adult dream construction, is characteristic of early childhood thinking (Brakel et al 2000;Brakel and Villa 2002;Brakel 2004).…”

Section: The Question Of Early Mentation: Moving Beyond Freud's Viewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unconscious Fantasy: A Once and Future Concept

Litowitz

2007

J Am Psychoanal Assoc

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The concept of unconscious fantasy should be retained as fundamental to any psychoanalytic approach. The concept is reexamined in the face of two challenges: today's theoretical pluralism and the recent integration of findings from academic research. The first section reviews post-Freudian theoretical contributions to Freud's original concept, concluding that in its evolved form it is flexible enough to serve multiple perspectives. The second section examines four features identified with primary process thinking, demonstrating that a model of early mentation based on adult dream work cannot be supported by research on early development. However, the contemporary concept of unconscious fantasy is compatible with research findings from child development studies and cognitive neuroscience, permitting psychoanalysts to enter dialogue with those fields. Our contribution is not the posit of a new form of thinking (primary process) but an understanding of how general cognitive processes are enlisted for motivated purposes.

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The Priority of Primary Process Categorizing: Experimental Evidence Supporting a Psychoanalytic Developmental Hypothesis

Cited by 36 publications

References 15 publications

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

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

Lexical Tendencies of High and Low Barrier Personalities in Narratives of Everyday and Dream Memories

Unconscious Fantasy: A Once and Future Concept

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