Compression (psychology)

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Compression , unification or condensation are psychoanalytic terms introduced by Sigmund Freud that stand for the mental process with which the intensities of individual ideas, memories and thoughts merge into the intensity of a single idea or a complex of ideas, etc. It is an energetic transformation in which mental energy flows freely from one idea etc. to the other. This free change of mental energy is characteristic of so-called primary processes that do not function under the goal of thinking identity, but aim at the fulfillment of pleasure, even to a certain extent self-deception to make life easier, i.e. to avoid displeasure and harmful things: a camouflage, reinterpretation, reconnection of unpopular perception or Memory.

However, condensation can also determine failures , the psychoenergetic dynamics of which, however, are not free-flowing, as certain external and internal motives are also involved. In this way, avoidance behavior can be triggered in the person concerned .

Examples

Primary processes with compression of mental Vorstellungs representative offices are characteristic of dream operations. It can be B. in the dream a teacher, the older brother and the father merge into a single person, which shows traits of all original persons. The condensation can also be of a collective nature, for example when monsters are formedin mythology, which are put together from parts of reality, here different animals, to form an uncanny whole: Sphinx , Hydra , Chimaira .

Economics

According to metapsychological considerations, the question arises of the expediency of shifting energy from individual ideas to complex ideas. Both the primary process and the secondary process pursue the goal of unification or identity , only with different means. In the primary process, the means of concentrating perceptual intensities is pursued ("perceptual identity" ) and thus the goal of dissipating arousal ( pleasure principle ), in the secondary process, on the other hand, it is about the "thought identity", ie the cognitive comparison of memories, experiences, wishes - thus about the identity of the interpretation and meaning ( reality principle ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Term introduced by Sigmund Freud in: Die Traumdeutung 6th and 7th chapters.
  2. Sigmund Freud : The joke and its relationship to the unconscious . (1905) Collected Works, Volume VI, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt / M 3 1953; P. 8n 31 f., 35, 40, 70–74, 114, 135, 139, 241. Online in the Gutenberg project
  3. This term, which was also introduced in the Interpretation of Dreams, 6th and 7th chapters, is the dominant one in Freud's further work.
  4. Uwe Henrik Peters : Dictionary of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology . 3rd edition, Urban & Schwarzenberg, Munich 1984; on article "Compression" p. 594 f.
  5. a b Freud, Sigmund : The Interpretation of Dreams . [1900] Gesammelte Werke, Volume II / III, S. Fischer, Frankfurt / M, the following page numbers based on the paperback edition of the Fischer library, Aug. 1966; for the definition of the primary process: Chap. VI. On the psychology of dream processes, p. 489; (a) Re. “Psychological definition of compression work”: Chap. VI. Die Traumarbeit, p. 483 f .; (b) Re. “Objectives, identity of thought”: Chap. VI. P. 489. Online in the Gutenberg project
  6. Arnold, Wilhelm et al. (Ed.): Lexicon of Psychology . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-508-8 ; on article "Condensation" Sp. 325 f.