Abstract

By 1900 Freud had observed two types of mental processes. Primary processes operate earlier in life, fuel impulses, and make connections based on associations and displacement rather than on any rational grounds or logical deliberations. Secondary processes are rationally based, reason-responsive, and “seem” to predominate in conscious adult life. Freud however, recognized that the primary processes are ubiquitous, unconsciously underpinning much of human behavior, across many domains. In the 1970s, “dual-process” psychologists provided compelling empirical evidence for two such systems of mentation – System Two, like the secondary processes, rational and deliberative; and System One, like Freud’s primary processes, associative, a-rational, jumping to rapid, often superficial solutions and conclusions.