11639 - 9 - What Freud Really Meant : A Chronological Reconstruction of his Theory of the Mind

Sigmund Freud described as the aim of his life’s work to “throw light upon unusual, abnormal or pathological manifestations of the mind” (1936/1981, p. 447). That entailed tracing them back to the psychological forces behind them and discovering the basic mechanisms behind those forces. The general theory of mind he fashioned from that effort attempts no less than the explanation of humanmental life from its merest beginnings to the labyrinthine processes capable of producing both mental illness and our highest intellectual and cultural achievements.