Psychoanalytic views of aggression: some theoretical problems.

Abstract

Various problems in relation to psychoanalytic theories of aggression are considered in a review which is by no means exhaustive but includes areas which have puzzled and interested the author. First to be considered is why the concept of aggression as a major drive was a relative late-comer in psychoanalysis; next the contentious concept of a 'death instinct' and some of the factors in Freud's lifetime which may have contributed to both. Then it is suggested that we seem to have theories of aggression which might be called primary or secondary in two different senses. First is the question whether aggression is innate or secondary to frustration. In another sense, primary and secondary theories of aggression seem to survive paralleling Freud's original primary and secondary theories of anxiety. In this sense the primary theory survives as an explanation of psychosomatic disorder. Lastly, the link between suicide and murder is considered and the turning of aggression against the self in depression and self-destructive attacks.