Freud divides psychic processes into two main types according to how they function: primary and secondary. This distinction is important because both participate in the dynamics of everyday activity as well as in the formation of symptoms.
The primary process corresponds to the mode of functioning characteristic of the Id. It belongs to a more basic and instinctive level associated with the unconscious. The secondary process is connected more closely with the work of the Ego and with the conscious processing of drives coming from the Id. Its purpose is to bring these pressing wishes into relation with reality.
We can therefore say that the primary process is guided mainly by the pleasure principle, while the secondary process follows the reality principle.
The original mode of psychic functioning
The primary process is characteristic of early childhood, but it remains with us throughout life. Freud calls it primary because it is the psyche’s original mode of functioning.
It can appear difficult to understand because of its paradoxical qualities. It may replace one word with another that contradicts it, or allow two opposing thoughts to exist simultaneously without conflict. A part of an object may represent the whole object, while the whole may stand for one of its parts. Long verbal phrases may be represented by a single image.
In pathological manifestations, the primary process can become more visible and may prevail. Its prominence is not, by itself, the pathology. The pathology lies in the absence or insufficiency of the secondary process.
Humour and a controlled regression
The primary process can also be observed in poetry and humour, especially when whole objects are represented through their parts. Freud conducted an experiment in which he retold jokes in the language of the secondary process. Once translated into this logical form, they completely lost their ability to provoke laughter. Jokes, in other words, rely mainly on the language of the primary process.
Humorous content uses displacement, the representation of a whole through one of its parts or the reverse, and the other properties of primary-process thinking. One example is the creation of a new word from parts of two existing words. The new word carries both meanings at once, which is a sign of condensation.
Because the primary process is characteristic of childhood, its use in humour can be understood as a partial regression of the listener’s Ego. Unlike pathological regression, however, this movement is directed by the Ego and is therefore protected from harmful effects. It occurs spontaneously, without conscious attention being directed toward it.
The pleasure involved has two sources. First, regression returns us to a state in which inhibitions are less strict. Second, it releases impulses that those inhibitions normally prohibit.
Dreams, symbols and multiple meanings
Understanding the same phrase differently depending on intonation or facial expression is another manifestation of the primary process. In dreams, the primary process also prevails over the secondary one.
Symbolism is characteristic of primary-process thinking and is clearly represented in dreams, where one idea can replace another. Freud gives the example of money in a dream symbolically representing faeces. Although this process is more pronounced in childhood and belongs to a less mature level of the psyche, it remains necessary and continues to function throughout life.
Displacement and condensation
The primary process has two principal properties: displacement and condensation. The mobility of cathexis is strongly expressed within it, which means that an investment can easily move by association from one idea to another.
Through displacement, a whole may be represented by one of its parts, or a part by the whole. What is actually displaced is the cathexis.
Condensation presents several different ideas through a single representation or through parts of it. Here again, the process concerns cathexis: the investments of several representations are brought together in one.
Slips, omissions and accidents
Manifestations of the primary process can be observed in slips of speech and mistakes in writing. It also participates in gaps in memory, and in moments when unconscious ideas are displaced or meanings are substituted and transferred from one object to another. This often happens when the ideas evoke guilt.
We usually attribute such errors to inattention. What happens, however, is that the primary process manages to prevail over the secondary one and produces an error that may express a repressed wish. Monotony, increased stress and other circumstances that weaken the secondary process’s “attention” favour the appearance of content that would normally remain repressed.
Sometimes a person’s behaviour may also be affected, and they may unconsciously contribute to an accident. The analysis of some accidents reveals unconscious wishes that, through displacement, condensation and the representation of a whole by a part or the reverse, manage to find a path and become realised to some extent in reality.
The primary process in symptom formation
A similar movement of displacement, condensation and substitution can be observed in the formation of symptoms. The symptom symbolically presents a “paraphrased” version of the underlying wish.
Yet the symptom contains more than this representation. It may also include a defence against the wish being realised and even the punishment that would follow its fulfilment. Symptom formation is a complex process that falls outside the scope of this article, but the important point here is that the primary process plays a significant role in it.
The term primary process can refer both to a type of thinking and to processes connected with the movement of libido and the discharge of drives in the unconscious.
The secondary process and the work of the Ego
The secondary process begins to develop gradually after birth. Like the primary process, the term can refer to two things: the mode of thought characteristic of the mature Ego and the way in which that Ego mobilises libido.
Its most important role is its capacity to delay the discharge of tension coming from the Id. Unlike the mobile cathexis of the primary process, cathexis here is firmly bound to objects and representations.
The secondary process is much easier for us to understand and describe because it is more familiar. It is connected with verbal thought and follows the laws of logic. It can be understood as a mechanism that makes possible a transformation of the drive energy coming from the Id.
Desexualisation and relative autonomy
Through this transformation, the sexual or aggressive component of drive energy is altered. The term desexualisation is also used for this process. Desexualisation allows the Ego to employ energy originating in the drives for other purposes, separated from sexuality or aggression.
A small child learning to speak offers an example. Initially, the child learns to speak in order to satisfy particular drive needs. Later, the capacity for speech becomes detached from those original wishes and turns into an instrument of communication. It is assumed that without the initial drive impulse, the child would not have had the stimulus and energy needed to develop speech.
The reverse process can also be observed in adults. As a result of regression, speech may again become connected with drive energy and give rise to problems such as stuttering or hysterical aphonia—the loss of the voice. Functions acquired with the help of drive energy become relatively autonomous from the drives, but under certain conditions they may once again pass under their control.
Two processes without a fixed boundary
We cannot draw a clear boundary around where the primary process begins and ends. The two processes exist in parallel and pass into one another. What we know about them has been derived mainly from the observation and analysis of actual cases.
The primary process appears to be connected with a more basic level of psychic functioning. The secondary process is acquired later and is related to verbalisation and to the secondary processing of information coming from both external and internal sources.
Understanding these two processes provides a foundation for understanding more complex interactions between psychic structures: the work of censorship and the Ego’s relationship to the repression or fulfilment of content coming from the unconscious.
I think it is appropriate to regard the secondary process as more characteristic of the structures of the Ego, and the primary process as more closely related to the way the unconscious is represented to the Ego.