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Chapter 4 - Drives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2023

Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen
Affiliation:
University of Washington
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Summary

After the biological turn of the Fliess years, the key word in psychoanalysis is no longer “trauma” but “drive.” The ultimate cause of neurotic disorders is no longer to be found in an external accident but in internal, hereditary instincts that repeat, in a compulsive and reflex way, the history of life and the species. As a result, everything that was previously described in terms of neuro-physio-psychological conflicts (desire/defense, will/counter-will, repression/return of the repressed, etc.) is henceforth interpreted as expressing conflicts between biological drives: sexual drive (reproductive instinct)/ego drive (self-preservation instinct); object (erotic) libido/ego (narcissistic) libido; and finally, life drive/death drive, Eros/Thanatos. Freud’s metapsychology is a speculative metabiology.

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Chapter
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Freud's Thinking
An Introduction
, pp. 90 - 123
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Drives
  • Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, University of Washington
  • Translated by Katy Masuga
  • Book: Freud's Thinking
  • Online publication: 21 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009371117.005
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  • Drives
  • Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, University of Washington
  • Translated by Katy Masuga
  • Book: Freud's Thinking
  • Online publication: 21 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009371117.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Drives
  • Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, University of Washington
  • Translated by Katy Masuga
  • Book: Freud's Thinking
  • Online publication: 21 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009371117.005
Available formats
×