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Turning around is a [[process ]] that affects the vicissitudes of the [[instinct ]] in [[terms ]] of its [[affective ]] expression (for example, [[love ]] turning into [[hate]]), its aim (for example, [[active ]] turning into [[passive]]), or its [[object ]] (in [[particular]], the shift from [[being ]] directed toward [[another ]] person to being turned back onto the [[self]]). These [[three ]] types of [[processes ]] are closely related.[[Freud ]] gave his essential description of this [[dynamic ]] in "[[Instincts ]] and Their Vicissitudes" (1915c). He defined four vicissitudes of the instincts: [[repression]], [[sublimation]], [[reversal ]] into the opposite, and turning around upon the [[subject]]'s own self.Freud also used the term <i>reversal</i> in this article in a different [[sense ]] involving the transformation of [[psychic ]] "[[contents]]," that is, an [[idea]], a [[representation]], a [[dream ]] [[image]], a [[symptom]], or the like, into its opposite. With [[regard ]] to the instinct itself, or rather its expression as an [[affect]], this dynamic "is found in the single [[instance ]] of the tranformation of love into hate"(1915c, p. 127); moreover, these two affects can coexist, which is the definition of [[ambivalence]]. However, it is appropriate to nuance Freud's [[statement ]] here, because reversal in the opposite direction, from hate into love, can also occur through reaction [[formation]].In the same article, Freud discusses two types of turning around onto the self: [[sadism ]] turning into [[masochism ]] and [[voyeurism ]] turning into [[exhibitionism]]. The former involves the transformation of sadism (the [[pleasure ]] of [[violence ]] being directed toward another person) into masochism (the subject derives pleasure from violence being directed against himself or herself and solicits it from someone else). In this 1915 article, Freud posited sadism as being primary and masochism as being secondary, that is, resulting from turning around, which necessarily implies a reversal [[inversion ]] of [[agent ]] and object positions (the [[relationship ]] in which the subject directs [[aggression ]] against another person turns into one where the [[other ]] person directs aggression against the subject) and a reversal inversion of the aim (the active aim, to direct aggression against the other, becomes passive, to be the object of the other's aggression). Previously, in "Formulations on the Two Principles of [[Mental ]] Functioning" (1911b), Freud had upheld that at the beginning of [[life ]] only the pleasure [[principle ]] holds sway; the instinct [[knows ]] only autoerotic [[satisfaction]]. During the [[narcissistic ]] [[phase]], the nascent ego, once it begins to distinguish between [[inside ]] and [[outside]], takes into itself from the outside that which is pleasurable and expels that which is painful, thus constituting itself as "purified pleasure-ego" (1915c, p. 136). As a result, "the [[external ]] [[world]], [[objects ]] and what is hated are identical" (p. 136); the object is [[born ]] in [[hatred]]. As we [[know]], this was to become the basis for the theories of Melanie [[Klein]]. However, this [[thesis]], which [[lacks ]] clarity, seemed somewhat [[forced ]] even to Freud himself. In "The [[Economic ]] Problem of Masochism" (1924c), he reconsidered this trajectory and proposed to reverse it, by positing masochism as being primary and sadism as being secondarily produced through turning around and [[projection ]] onto the external object. (These issues have been discussed, in particular, by Benno Rosenberg in <i>[[Masochisme ]] mortifère et Masochisme gardien de la vie</i> (1991; Destructive masochism and masochism as preserver of life.)Whatever the [[case ]] may be, the dynamic of suppressing [[aggressive ]] impulses and turning [[them ]] against the self and a transformation with regard to the aim of the instinct, which changes from active to passive (the instinct itself, we must [[recall]], is always active) is routinely encountered in [[clinical ]] [[practice]].The same is [[true ]] of the reversal of voyeurism into exhibitionism. Here Freud distinguished three "[[stages]]" corresponding to the successive modes of the [[search ]] for pleasure: [[looking ]] at the [[body ]] of another person, looking at one's own body, and displaying one's body so that it will be looked at. Here again, the [[change ]] from active aim to passive aim and turning around onto the self are closely linked, and the narcissistic phase plays an essential [[role ]] in this [[developmental ]] process.In clinical terms "the turning round upon the subject's self and the transformation from [[activity ]] to [[passivity ]] converge or coincide"(1915c, p. 127). It nevertheless remains useful, on a [[theoretical ]] level, to distinguish these modalities which is what André Green does, notably, in <i>Life [[Narcissism]], [[Death ]] Narcissism</i> (1983/2001) has proposed with the idea of "a [[double ]] [[return]]."To these two types of turning around [[analyzed ]] by Freud (sadism-masochism and voyeurism-exhibitionism), it would be possible to add the opposition he defined during the same period between ego [[libido ]] and object libido, or, in terms of [[cathexis]], between the ego's cathexis of the object or of itself. This opposition, described in "[[On Narcissism]]: An Introduction" (1914c), is within the context of the first [[theory ]] of the instincts (opposition between the [[sexual ]] instincts and the self-preservation or ego instincts). Freud later revisited this opposition in light of his [[topographical ]] and economic theories of the 1920s, in particular within the framework of his [[thinking ]] on the [[psychoses]]. However, throughout these successive versions, these same [[figures ]] of turning around appear, with regard to affect (love-hate), the [[instinctual ]] aim (active-passive), and the object (self-other).

* [[Freud, Anna]]. (1936). The ego and the mechanisms of [[defence]]. [[London]]: Hogarth.