Extending the theory of premature automatization: The fantasy as an abstract rule in hierarchical cognitive control

ABSTRACT The neuropsychoanalytic theory of repression as premature automatization is a major clinical contribution of neuropsychoanalysis. One of its clinical implications is that psychoanalysis works with (declarative) derivatives of the repressed to gradually automatize new non-declarative action plans that better meet one’s needs. This supposes a certain link between the repressed and its derivatives. However, the way derivatives are linked to the repressed has not been elaborated. Here, I propose a consilience between hierarchical cognitive control (instantiated in basal ganglia-prefrontal cortex loops) and the fantasy (as developed in Lacanian psychoanalysis). I claim that this structure provides the link between the premature automatized repressed and derivatives. Specifically, higher-order, abstract (non-declarative) rule systems govern the contextual selection of actions to achieve a goal-state. For premature automatized action plans, which have a generalized status and confidence, the abstract rule system in which they are nested is commensurately generalized, even though it does not work. This approach emphasizes how prematurely automatized motor plans are nested within a structuring hierarchy that effects their instantiations across various interpersonal and fantasmatic scenes.