24,656
edits
Changes
no edit summary
'''Overdetermination''', the idea that a single observed effect is determined by multiple causes at once (any one of which alone might be enough to account for the effect), was originally a key concept of [[Sigmund Freud]]'s [[psychoanalysis]].
==For Freud and Psychoanalysis==
Freud wrote in ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'' that many features of dreams were usually "overdetermined," in that they were caused by multiple factors in the life of the dreamer, from the "residue of the day" (superficial memories of recent life) to deeply repressed traumas and unconscious wishes, these being "potent thoughts". Freud favored interpretations which accounted for such features not only once, but many times, in the context of various levels and complexes of the dreamer's psyche.
The concept was later borrowed for a variety of other realms of thought.
==def==
The idea of overdetermination refers to the organization of multiple determinants combining to define a psychic formation. The notion may be represented metaphorically as multiple nodes anchoring a web whose linking strands are lines of associated thoughts. The content of psychic formations understood in this way is determined by the points of intersection of the lines of association, along which psychic energy flows as part of a process of displacement.
Another Freudian conceptualization of overdetermination, lateral and etiopathogenic,...
[[Category:Sigmund Freud]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Psychoanalytic theory]]
[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
