Drive
THE DRIVE
THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN AN INSTINCT AND A DRIVE
It is crucial to acknowledge the distinction between an instinct and a drive.
An instinct designates a need that can be satisfied.
The examples Freud usually gives are those of hunger and thirst.
These needs give rise to an excitation within the body that can be satisfied and neutralized.
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The drive, on the other hand, cannot be satisfied and is characterized by the constancy of the pressure it exerts on consciousness.
Translation
The Standard Edition of the works of Freud fails to reister the important distinction he makes between Instinkt and Trieb.
Freud normally uses the word Instinkt to refer to a relatively fixed set of behavioral patterns triggered by external stimuli; instincts are characteristic of animals, and are biologically defined.[1]
Unlike an instinct a drive or Trieb (from the verb tereiben, "to push") does not have a preordained goal and is characterized by the pressure it exerts within the psyche.
The aims or goals of drives ar eextremely variable and are strongly influenced by the history of the individual.
A drive is characterized by its source ( a physical stimulus or erogenous zone), its aim (the elimination of the tension caused by stimulation) and its object (anything that enables it to fulfil its aim).
Freud's theory of drives is dualistic, and a distinction is made beween ego-drives , whcih are directed towards self-preservation, and sexual drives.
In his later work, Freud introduces a further distinction between life-drives and the death drive.
The model of the Freudian drive is libido - sexual energy - or what is also translated as 'wish' or 'desire'. According to Laplanche and Leclaire, it is the introduction of the drive into the sphere of need that marks the distinction between a need and desire: 'the drive introduces into the sphere of need an
trieb tends to be trasnalted as drive, as this is the closest equivalent to the french pulsion.
The drive
or instinct as it is usually translated in English
- ↑ Freud, Sigmund. (1915a) "Instincts and their Vicissitudes." SE XIV; Penguin Freud Library XI
