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Excitation is a term borrowed from the [[lexicon ]] of commonplace [[words ]] derived from the Vulgar [[Latin ]] excitatio: "the [[action ]] of exciting"; it is used notably in [[physics ]] and [[physiology]]. Sigmund [[Freud]], and [[other ]] [[psychoanalysts ]] after him, expanded this term for use in [[metapsychology]], particularly the [[economic ]] dimensions of that approach. In this usage, the [[word ]] carries with it the connotations of the Latin excitare: "to awaken, wake up, push, or stimulate at the level of the [[psychic ]] [[apparatus]]."

This [[psychic apparatus]], the fictional [[representation ]] of metapsychological [[topography]], appears as the locus of reception, transformation, and capacity for adequate discharge of excitation. Even before his [[analytic ]] period per se, Freud in "The [[Psycho]]-[[Neuroses ]] of [[Defence]]" (1894a) envisaged the sum of excitation as a quantum of [[affect ]] that is spread over the [[memory ]] traces of representations. It is in this light that, for [[want ]] of a connection with affect, he posits an "[[abreaction]]" caused by the [[excess ]] of excitation. It is also necessary that endogenous excitations reach a certain threshold in [[order ]] to become [[mental ]] excitations. In The [[Interpretation ]] of [[Dreams ]] (1900a) he conjectures that "during certain [[psychical ]] [[processes ]] the systems may be traversed in a [[temporal ]] sequence determined by excitation"

Excitation may be [[external ]] in origin, in the [[form ]] of a stimulus coming from the object or the [[environment]], and the problem becomes the manner in which it is handled, bound, and evacuated. Here Freud advances the [[concept ]] of the "protective shield" that serves to protect against an overflow of excitation, which he views as [[being ]] [[traumatic]]. Envisioning trauma as a "breaking through of the protective shield" is one of the perspectives he offers. But overflow can also originate internally. In cases where sound psychic defensive systems are lacking—above all, a failure of [[defense ]] through [[repression]], which would prevent [[satisfaction ]] and discharge toward the outside—the result is the mental [[symptom ]] as a [[sign ]] and [[substitute ]] for an [[instinctual ]] satisfaction that has not taken [[place]], like a foreign [[body ]] that keeps producing phenomena of excitation and reaction in the (mental) tissue in which it is implanted.

Excitation is thus also included in the [[register ]] of the pulsional [[system]]. [[Instinct]], a borderline concept between the psychic and the somatic, is posited as an excitation for the [[psyche]]. It is found in connection with the [[terms ]] [[drive]], aim, and source.

Beyond a certain threshold of excitation, Freud evokes the [[notion ]] of "[[libidinal ]] coexcitation," which ostensibly [[disappears ]] over [[time]]; this is supposedly the point from which [[fixation ]] begins. Thus the [[instincts]], in contrast to stimulus or external excitation, never act as a force of momentary impact, but rather as an ongoing force. Thus too, the final [[goal ]] of mental activity—the tendency to obtain [[pleasure ]] and to avoid unpleasure—can be envisioned, in economic terms, as an effort to [[master ]] the masses of excitation that reside in the psychic apparatus.

The concept of conversion brings with it the enigma of the leap from mental excitation to the somatic level—the [[true ]] "vicissitude" of the instincts, a [[process ]] that is above all discernible in the [[structures ]] of [[hysteria]]. Jean-[[Paul ]] Valabrega takes up this notion of discharge through conversion in approaching [[psychosomatic ]] phenomena, while other authors invoke the [[idea ]] of a [[return ]] of excitation to its earliest source, the somatic level, in the [[absence ]] of successful mentalization. In the view of Pierre Marty, the flow of the excitations from the instincts and the [[drives]], essentially [[aggressive ]] and [[erotic]], constitutes the central problem in somatization. He contends that in the absence of sound regulation by the psychic apparatus and thus of the possibility for [[adaptation]], the excess or deficit of excitation causes a trauma that can become the point of departure for the process of somatization.

Finally, following the introduction of the [[death ]] instinct in Beyond the Pleasure [[Principle ]] (1920g), Freud somewhat reconsiders excitation within the framework of the [[life ]] and death instincts. The force and the flow (or retention) of excitation are reexamined, in light of the principles of constancy and inertia that he had already developed but further elaborates here. It should be [[recalled ]] that, for Freud, although the animistic process is automatically regulated by the pleasure-[[unpleasure ]] principle, the economic viewpoint accepts that the mental representatives of the instincts are invested with determined quantities of [[energy ]] and that the psychic apparatus tends to maintain at the lowest possible level the sum [[total ]] of excitations it carries. But the very [[essence ]] of instinctual functioning is also envisioned: the tendency toward inertia under the influence of the [[death instinct]]. [[Repetition ]] [[compulsion ]] (the instinct's instinct, according to Francis Pasche) is arguably a way to deal with the [[surplus ]] of excitation that is not bound to the instinct as the result of post-traumatic defusion. Freud's example of the repetition of traumatic dreams provides an illustration of this. In this view, the aim of [[repetition compulsion ]] is the extinction of traumatic excitation through exhaustion—and this to the point of inertia, the aim of the death instinct.

This posited aim enables Freud to propose a notion drawn from the [[philosophy ]] of the Far East: the nirvana principle, whose aim is total discharge—a quasi-metaphysical and existential approach that transcends the metapsychological economic register. This principle takes to its extremes and goes beyond [[another ]] of Freud's principles, the principle of constancy.

# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1894a). The psycho-neuroses of defence. SE, 3: 45-61.# ——. (1900a). The [[interpretation of dreams]]. Part I, SE,4: 1-338]]