The Psychoanalytic Theory of Thinking

ideas implies an additional decathexis of the image word representation. Thus, it would follow that a surplus of psychic energy seems to accrue 152 SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS as a result of the maturation of the thinking function. Because of this element of progressive decathesis of representations of the external world it would appear that abstract thinking tends in a direction away from reality testing and object relations. Thus, a metapsychological approach to the problem of proximity of genius to psychosis suggests itself. Even within the realm of abstract thinking, Rosen maintained, there appears to be a hierarchy based on the progressive withdrawal of object cathexes. Classification, quantification and finally spatial relationship constitute progressive stages of detachment from concrete object representations. Rosen then undertook to illustrate with a case report how these three elementary categories of abstraction were used regressively in the service of the id by an individual ivho, in other situations, utilized these same categories in highly complex, realistic professional work, i.e., in the service of the ego. Professionally the patient was a mathematician with an unusual gift for “programming” mathematical problems in advanced nuclear physics on a high speed electronic device. 1. Classification in the service of the primary process.-During a phase of the transference the patient wished to be loved by the analyst for herself and not because of her special mathematical capacity in which the therapist was reputedly interested. Accordingly, when this patient was relocated in her job she began to sort out and classify in her mind special characteristics of her new associates in such a way as to create a “case” to prove that she had been demoted because she had been discovered to be a fraud. If, under these circumstances, the analyst continued therapy, it was proof that he loved her for Iicrsclf. Thus, through a perversion -of the function of classification an instinctual wish was given expression. 2. Arithmetical computation in the service of defense.-On several occasions this patient made gross errors in arithmetic. These were overdetermined expressions of her ambivalent attitude in the transference. Since real mathematicians are supposedly notoriously poor in arithmetic, such errors proved that she was indeed a real mathematician and thus assured her of the analyst’s continuing love. On the other hand, being stupid was equated with being feminine and was thereby associated with her wish to be loved as a woman. 3. Spatial relationships conceived regressively.-Spaces of “mental blankness” in the treatment were seen to represent substitute expressions for sexual experiences. This was related to a defensive inability to visualize her genitals as well as the physical aspects of her childhood sexual relations with her brother. The blank spell could be interpreted as an attempt to communicate “the nonrepresentational” aspects of her experience JVhat characterizes the mental functioning of highly gifted individuals is the fact that the intermediate stages of thought which link the perception of data of the object world to the formation of highly abstract concepts are carried out preconsciously. Thus, these intermediate stages of thought remain closer to the primary process. As a result one may obsene a surprising T H E PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF THINKING 153 composite of an individual who is object-bound in a primitive way and at the same time a brilliant, highly abstract theoretician. (This was very striking in the patient reported. Although an adult, she still kept in her bed a teddy bear which her father had given her when she was two years old shortly before he died.) This may be the reason why individuals who are unusually gifted often create the impression of a borderline personality. In a psychotic, however, the intermediate stages of concept formation are much closer to the primary process. In the gifted individual these stages of thought are more amenable to control by the ego. The gifted individual utilizes, in the intermediate stages of concept formation, a high mobility of cathexis with a concomitant low degree of drive discharge. Under the influence of the transference, of course, a regressive reinstinctualization of thinking may occur creating the impression of more severe disturbances in object relations than actually exist. In discussion, Charles Brenner pointed out that the patient’s fantasy while solving a problem is not the same as the thought processes which lead to finding the correct solution of the problem. John Benjamin asked hoiv one distinguished between the use of abstract capacities versus the development of such capacities. Rosen responded that he had stressed the economy of cathexis and had made no attempt to describe the qualitative differences between the highly gifted theoretician and the abstract thinker in general. He felt that the essence of the intellectual gift was not the issue discussed since he was in no position, from his data, to account for its appearance. IVhat could be described analytically was hoiv the existence of such a gift in an individual makes certain drive discharges possible. In closing, Rangell commented on the richness of the discussion and the range of theoretical, clinical and experimental reference. ,He expressed the conviction that further scientific collaboration on the problem of thinking would be richly rewarding.