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final division between the content of the two systems does not, as a rule, take place till puberty” (Freud, 1915c, p.195). In “A Child is Being Beaten” (1919) , presaging the dual instinct theory, Freud explored the sado-masochistic unconscious fantasies of boys and girls of being beaten by the father and mother. In this key text on fantasy formation, Freud distinguished three phases starting with the child witnessing another child being beaten. It is, however, the second phase which “is the most important and the most momentous of all” (p 185) for two reasons. On the one hand, masochism is viewed as a secondary formation/phase of the sadistic instinct turned upon the self and repressed in the process. This is linked to a universal unconscious infantile sexuality lying at the core of neurotic phenomena: “infantile sexuality, which is held under repression, acts as the chief motive force in the formation of symptoms; and the essential part of its content, the Oedipus complex, is the nuclear complex of neuroses ” (p. 204); and it becomes a universal fantasy heritage: “Man’s archaic heritage forms the nucleus of the unconscious mind; and whatever part of that heritage has to be left behind… because it is unserviceable… falls a victim to the process of repression.” (Pp. 203-204). On the other hand, the child’s fantasy production can only be verified indirectly: “We may say of it in a certain sense that it has never had a real existence. It is never remembered; it has never succeeded in becoming conscious. It is a construction of analysis, but it is nevertheless a necessity on that account” (p.185). “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” (Freud, 1920) is a transitional text, mostly known for adding the aggressive drive to the sexual drive. In this final account of his ‘dual instinct theory’, Freud also elaborated further on the timelessness and pervasive nature of the unconscious as follows: “We have learnt that unconscious mental processes are in themselves ‘timeless’. This means in the first place that they are not ordered temporarily, that time does not change them in any way and that the idea of time cannot be applied to them… ” (p.28). Presaging his next stage of theory development, he also introduces the notion of unconscious ego: “It is certain that much of the ego is itself unconscious, and notably what we may describe as its nucleus; only a small part of it is covered by the term ‘preconscious’” (p.19). This text also reformulates the concept of the unconscious conflict: While previously, the conflict was seen as between sexual and ego preservative instincts (Freud, 1911c, 1914b), now, in 1920, the conflict is between the instinctual drives and defense. Although various defenses, other than, or as part of, repression, were already identified, in the course of this period (Freud, 1908, 1909b, 1911c, 1915a), the defenses were not systematized, and repression was used as a synonym for defense, when it came to conceptualization of unconscious conflict. II. C. The Unconscious of the Structural Model/Second Topography: 1923 – 1939 When Freud changed his (first) topographical model into the Structural theory/second topography of the Id, the Ego and the Super-ego in 1923, the Unconscious was abandoned as a system and, in part, replaced by the Id. This transformation meant a thorough change in Freudian theory not only with regard to the unconscious but also concerning the ego and the drives. The main difference between the unconscious and the Id is that in the deeper strata of
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