Symposium on The Ego and the Id after fifty years. The structural hypothesis--theoretical considerations.

Freud reformulated his model of the psychic apparatus because certain clinical observations did not fit into the earlier framework of his theory. In the new theory, he emphasized the role each element plays in psychic conflict. Because Freud philosophically was committed to a materialistic, nonteleological, biologically based theory, he carried over into the new formulations some of the metapsychological assumptions of the earlier theory. It is suggested that this transposition is responsible for some of the confusion concerning the application of the structural theory. It is proposed that if a more strict usage of the concept of metapsychology with more precise conceptualization is employed, some of the problems connected with the application of the structural theory may be overcome.