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For both paired opposites, "[[Instincts]] and Their Vicissitudes" (Freud, 1915c) is a key reference. In it Freud referred to activity/passivity as one of "[[three]] polarities" that govern "our [[mental]] [[life]] as a [[whole]]" (p. 133), along with the pairs ego/outside [[world]] and [[pleasure]]/unpleasure. But even in 1896 Freud had already evoked the polarity of activity/passivity in his theory of [[seduction]], which he based on [[clinical]] findings and [[individual]] histories of [[neuroses]]. [[Hysteria]], he wrote at the [[time]], results from "[[sexual]] passivity during the pre-sexual period" (1896b, p. 163) that is reacted to by indifference, contempt, or [[fear]]. In contrast, in [[obsessional]] [[neurosis]], (Zwangsneurose) pleasure is active: the seduced [[infant]] actively, aggressively, repeats an experienced sexual attack on [[another]] infant. This alteration of the sexual attack experienced by the [[child]] from [[passive]] to active can also occur in masturbatory activity.
Freud subsequently modified his views by acknowledging a "spontaneous" [[infantile]] [[sexuality]] not forcibly induced by an [[adult]] seducer. This was the theme of his [[Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality]] (1905d). In this [[work]] Freud described [[libidinal]] [[development]] as proceeding from "a [[number]] of [[separate]] instincts and [[erotogenic]] zones, which, independently of one another, have pursued a certain sort of pleasure as their sole [[sexual aim]]" (p. 207) and have gradually [[unified]] under [[genital]] sexuality, which becomes primary. Therefore, the "opposition found in all [[sexual life]] clearly manifests itself" within a development [[stage]], whether it be the second [[pregenital]] or [[anal]]-[[sadistic]] [[phase]]. This is an opposition not between masculine and [[feminine]] but between active and passive. Freud noted, "The activity is put into operation by the [[instinct]] for [[mastery]] through the agency of the somatic musculature; the [[organ]] which, more than any [[other]], represents the passive [[Sexual Aim|sexual aim ]] is the erotogenic mucous membrane of the anus" (p. 198). This [[association]] comes into play during the anal sadistic phase, since, for Freud, earlier sexual activity, that of [[oral]], or "cannibalistic," organization, does not yet display these "opposing currents."
Primarily within a clinical framework Freud noted the opposition of active and passive with respect to [[homosexuality]] as well as the opposites [[sadism/masochism]] and [[voyeurism]]/exhibitionism. He wrote that sexual intent "manifests itself in a dualistic [[form]]: active and passive." A 1915 addition to the Three Essays generalized these [[ideas]], designating activity and passivity as "[[universal]] characteristics of sexual life" (p. 159).
In "[[Instincts and Their Vicissitudes]]" (1915c) Freud further elaborated these ideas, which led him from the use of clinical findings to an analysis of the [[internal]] [[mechanism]] of the [[drive]]. Every drive is active in itself; it is a "piece of activity" (p. 122). However, the aim of the drive, which is always [[satisfaction]], can be achieved by various means. One way is the "[[change]] from activity to passivity" (p. 127). For [[instance]], in [[Sadism/Masochism|sadism/masochism]], the active [[goal]] of tormenting and watching is replaced by the passive goal of [[being]] tormented, of being watched. Therefore, three simultaneous or successive positions of the [[subject]] with respect to the [[object]] can result in satisfaction: active, passive (a [[reversal]] back to oneself), and "reflected means" (observing oneself, [[self]]-inflicted [[pain]]). This flexibility of the instinctive aims of the drive contrasts with the fixity of [[perverse]] sexuality.
In developing his theory of psychosexuality, Freud closely linked the pairs activity/passivity and masculine/feminine, which he sometimes used as synonyms. In some [[texts]], in fact, Freud's clinical observations shows them to be nearly indistinguishable, for example, in the [[Wolf Man]]'s [[regression]] from passive desires to masochistic and feminine desires toward his [[father]] (1918b [1914]). Later and in a context less closely associated with individual clinical analysis, Freud insisted on the importance of not "indentify[ing] activity with maleness and passivity with femaleness" (1930a, p. 106).
As for the [[role]] of active and passive in the theory of the ego, Freud, in 1915, emphasized that transformations of the drive by [[repression]] and reversal protect the [[psychic]] [[apparatus]]. These transformations depend on "the [[narcissistic]] organization of the ego and bear the stamp of that phase. They perhaps correspond to the attempts at [[defense]] which at higher [[stages]] of the development of the ego are effected by other means" (p. 132). The transformations between active and passive imply a narcissistic consistency and a drive that is also no longer "poorly connected and independent" (Freud, 1915c).
After 1920 and his introduction of the [[structural]] theory (ego, id, [[superego]]), Freud could refer to a passive ego confronting an id, or a masochistic or feminine ego confronting a sadistic [[SuperEgo|superego ]] (1928b). He then renewed his study of [[psychoses]], [[melancholy]], and [[trauma]]. It was around this time that Freud introduced the [[death]] drive and its essentially destructive effect through unbinding. With the [[notion]] of unbinding Freud could better distinguish the activity of the drive from its potential for destructive [[aggression]]. The internal organization of sadism/masochism (mastery, sadism, primary and secondary masochism) could then be conceived as protecting the [[psyche]] by binding the [[death drive]](1924c). The [[repetition]] [[compulsion]] also reintroduces psychic binding through the interplay of activity and passivity in the face of trauma. This occurs during the child's play when the child "makes the transition from passivity to activity [in [[order]] to] psychically [[control]] her impressions of life." These perspectives are extensively explored in contemporary [[psychoanalytic]] work.
SERGE GAUTHIER
