Freud’s Dual Instinct Theory of Sexuality and Aggression

Motivations in Drives:

Freud’s Dual Instinct Theory of Sexuality and Aggression

Freud’s “libido theory,” as the starting point of his psychoanalytic understanding of human biopsychological functioning, remains one of his most widely recognized concepts – particularly as it encompasses the Oedipus complex. While sexuality maintains its central position in psychoanalytic theory and clinical work (and indeed, through simple introspection, in all our lives), the classical libido theory itself is rarely referenced today. This theory was grounded in the concept of a fixed quantum of energy, expressed primarily through different bodily zones and progressive “psychosexual phases,” with diminished energy available if any became fixated at an earlier phase. Originally viewed as virtually the primary source of all human motivation, this conceptualization of libidinal energy has given way to more dynamic, open-system models of motivation. Yet sexuality itself persists as a fundamental force in human psychology.

Sexuality

More clearly than any other motivation, sexuality reflects not just humanity’s evolutionary position but the evolutionary process itself. As participants in evolution, our sexuality (along with natural selection) serves as evolution’s vehicle. The psychoanalytic conception of sexuality extends far beyond adult heterosexual intercourse – evolution’s reproductive mechanism – to include phenomena Freud (1905) observed in children, in adult foreplay, and in perversions. These all involve numerous acts across various bodily zones with intense sensual components, leading to his theory of “infantile sexuality.” Broadly conceived, sexuality becomes the prototype for forces that sustain and organize behavior around individual aims (i.e., motivations). It also exemplifies David Rapaport’s (1960) defining features of motivation: cyclicity, peremptoriness, and – crucially for human motivation given mental complexity – displaceability. This capacity for altered, disguised and indirect expression through bodily, mental and behavioral channels proves central to psychoanalytic understandings of both normal and pathological sexual development.

Aggression

Parallel considerations apply to aggressive drives: an inherent biological basis; learning’s role through attachment to formative memories; and functional expansion into object relations, ego mastery and self-experience. Like sexuality, aggressive urges can sustain and direct (motivate) behavior toward individual aims. Aggression’s proactive/reactive status appears less clear than sexuality’s. While undeniably innate and evolutionarily essential for survival (in food procurement, mate selection, offspring protection and territoriality), these all represent reactive, situational expressions rather than purely proactive ones. Human aggression shares sexuality’s peremptory and displaceable qualities – expressible through disguised channels or complete repression – but lacks sexuality’s clear cyclicity. Parens (1979) distinguishes nonhostile aggression (e.g., proactive exploration), nonhostile yet destructive aggression (e.g., biting/chewing), and hostile destructiveness (with Stechler & Halton [1987] separating exploration entirely from aggression). Regardless of its proactive/reactive origins, aggression’s universality stems from the inevitability of triggering events throughout human development – physical restraints, activity interference, frustrations, narcissistic injuries. These omnipresent frustrations and deprivations ensure aggression’s continual activation.

A critical question concerns how reactive aggression becomes proactive, acquiring sustained, “driving” qualities. Stechler and Halton (1987) propose that interference with proactive exploratory behavior generates aggressive reactions that then adopt the original behavior’s proactive momentum. Kernberg’s (1982) work on internalized object relations offers another perspective, as does McDevitt’s (1983) developmental observations. McDevitt documented infants’ early aggressive outbursts as reactive and transient, ceasing when frustrations resolve or attention shifts. However, during the second year, aggressive reactions become sustained – a change McDevitt linked to object constancy development. With emerging capacity to mentally maintain representations of frustrating “others,” toddlers can sustain aggressive responses cognitively, enabling progression from reactive to proactive aggression. Like sexuality, aggression becomes subject to mental complexity – capable of sustained, displaced, symbolic or defended-against expression while serving diverse motivational functions: as sexual arousal, enacted object relations, attachment need modulation, or compensation for self-deficits. This functional versatility facilitates aggression’s shift from reactive to proactive status.

Ultimately, both drives – while biologically rooted – become inextricably woven into individual developmental histories. Their manifestations reflect not just instinctual origins but the entire complexity of human psychological development, making them central to understanding both normal and pathological functioning.

References

Freud, S. (1905/1953). Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 7, pp. 125-245). London: Hogarth Press.

Kernberg, O. F. (1982). Aggression in Personality Disorders and Perversions. New Haven: Yale University Press.

McDevitt, J. B. (1983). The Emergence of Hostile Aggression and Its Defensive and Adaptive Modifications During the Separation-Individuation Process. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 31(S1), 273-300.

Parens, H. (1979). The Development of Aggression in Early Childhood. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.

Person, E. S., Cooper, A. M., & Gabbard, G. O. (Eds.). (2005). The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychoanalysis. American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.

Rapaport, D. (1960). The Structure of Psychoanalytic Theory: A Systematizing Attempt. Psychological Issues, 2(2), 1-158.

Stechler, G., & Halton, A. (1987). The Emergence of Assertiveness and Aggressive Behavior During Infancy. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 35(4), 821-838.

Additional citations from the Textbook’s coverage of drive theory would include specific chapter authors and page references from the original volume.