Jonah Bossewitch	September 25, 1995

PSY 365	Professor Sugarman

Instincts an Their Vicissitudes/Repression

In this paper Freud attempts to describe the basic foundations of instincts in terms of their origins, development, and components. First, Freud defines an instinct as a stimulus that "arises within the organism itself... and always act as a constant force." He then proceeds to explain the various components of an instinct such as the impetus, aim, object of, and source. Freud concedes that the number and nature of the instincts postulated is "a great opportunity for arbitrary choice." He settles on two primal instincts: the self-preservative instincts and the sexual instincts. These instincts may be operated upon by the following transformations: Reversal into its opposite, Turning round upon the subject, Repression, and Sublimation. Freud also postulates the three polarities of thee mind (Subject (ego) # Object, Pleasure # Pain, Active # Passive) which allow us to model the actions of these instincts along these axes. It seems as if Freud is suggesting a progression of transformations with the latter ones being more "sophisticated" than the former ones. It sounds like regression incorporates some of the techniques of Reversal and Turning. In that case, could they have been categorized as primal forms of repression that straddle/predate the barrier between the conscious and the unconscious?