Posted by alexandra_k on January 17, 2006, at 1:29:53
Have been doing some reading trying to understand psychoanalytic theory.
‘According to Freud, the development of the libido, sometimes referred to as sexuality or the life instinct, is what drives our psychological development.
Freud’s theory of the death instinct was drawn from his experience of the outside world, particularly of the First World War, from his difficulty in understanding how human beings could put themselves through so much misery without rebelling.
He worked it into his metapsychology by arguing that both the life and death instincts come from the same root and have the same aim: a release of tension. However, they choose different ways to achieve that aim. The life instinct chooses a circuitous route through the formation of relationships with others, sexual activity and the production of children, the continuation of life. The death instinct chooses a more direct route: the release of tension forever. However, it can be subordinated to the life instinct when it is directed against an external enemy…
[What I'm wondering about now is whether we need to posit a ‘death instinct’ in addition to the ‘life instinct’, or whether we can make do with the libido?]
[Melanie Klein suggested] that we regard it as a natural destructive impulse, built into our physical movements and our ability to feel angry.
These two drives... Can be seen as providing the energy for psychic life and the basis of the psychic structures... The problem with carthartic release is that the energy builds up again so we get back to where we started from... Psychoanalytic therapy... aims at changing the structures through which the energy is processed.
"Psychoanalysis: A Critical Introduction" pp. 19-20
What I'm wondering about now is whether we need to posit an ‘agressive instinct’ in addition to the ‘life instinct’, or whether we can make do with the libido?
poster:alexandra_k
thread:599901
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20060110/msgs/599901.html