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*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17th_century 17th Century]
==Definition==
*An [[intuitive]] [[response]] [[thought]] to be [[instinctive]] in [[animals]], which prompts whichever [[behaviour]] promises the best [[chance]] of [[survival]].
*The preservation of one's [[existence]]; esp. applied to the [[natural law]] or [[instinct]] which impels living [[creatures]] to take measures to prolong life and avoid [[injury]].
==Description==
The term '''self-preservation''' in its simplest definition describes both the set of [[behaviors]] by means of which [[individuals]] attempt to preserve their own [[existence]] and the psychical [[processes]] that establish these behaviors.
In an initial period of his work [[Freud]] associated these [[behaviors]] with the [[sexual]] [[instincts]]. He claimed that a [[person]]'s life is conditioned by two major [[forces]]: self-preservation [[instincts]], by means of which people preserve their own [[existence]], and [[sexual]] instincts, by means of which they ensure the [[survival]] of the [[species]]. This, he asserted, was [[fundamental]] [[biological]] [[data]], adding that, as simple [[observation]] [[illustrates]], they can be [[opposed]] in [[conflicts]] that result in the [[essentials]] of psychic [[dynamics]].
Although the notion of "self-preservation" itself did not appear until later, we find it foreshadowed as early as 1895 in "A Project for a Scientific Psychology" ([[Freud]], 1950a), in which [[Freud]] accords major importance to [[attention]] viewed as the cathexis of [[perception]] and [[thought]] processes by the [[ego]] for the [[purpose]] of [[adaptation]]. He did not however explicitly formulate his [[thesis]] until 1910 in an article on "The Psychoanalytic View of Psychogenic Disturbance of Vision" (1910i, pp. 209-218), where he evoked "the undeniable [[opposition]] between the [[instincts]] which subserve [[sexuality]], the [[attainment]] of sexual [[pleasure]], and those other [[instincts]], which have as their aim the self-preservation of the [[individual]], the [[ego]] instincts" (p. 214). He was to return to this question and [[discuss]] it in greater detail in "Instincts and their Vicissitudes" (1915c, p. 124): "I have proposed that two groups of such primal [[instincts]] should be distinguished: the [[ego]], or self-preservative, [[instincts]] and the sexual instincts." He added cautiously—and somewhat short of his earlier affirmation that it was "fundamental biological data"—that it was merely a working [[hypothesis]].
In this passage we notice that in [[accordance]] with the approach opened up in the "Project," he considers "self-preservative [[instincts]]" and "[[ego]] instincts" as being [[equivalent]] terms and that they are indeed [[instincts]]. However, "As the [[poet]] has said, all the organic instincts [. . .] may be [[classified]] as '[[hunger]]' or '[[love]]' " (1910i, p. 214-215). This brings up the question as to what is a purely organic need (Berdürfnis), what is instinctive [[behavior]] (Instinkt, in the sense of [[preformed]] and [[automatically]] [[executed]] [[behavior]]), and what is drive (Trieb, in the sense of a "borderline-[[concept]]" between the organic and the psychic). [[Freud]] was to be much more explicit on this question in relation to psychosexuality than in [[relation]] to self-preservation, which was relegated somewhat to the rear of his [[theoretical]] preoccupations. This [[opposition]]-[[complementarity]] nevertheless plays an important role in the [[theory]] that the [[sexual]] [[instincts]] are connected to the self-preservation instincts, based on the first case of sucking (1905d), and in the [[opposition]] between the [[pleasure]] principle and the [[reality]] principle: the ego instincts force the way to the [[reality]] principle, whereas the sexual instincts remain much more durably in the service of the [[pleasure]] principle (1911b).
With the arrival of the structural theory and the second theory of [[instincts]] opposing life instincts and [[death]] instincts, the question takes on new [[dimensions]]. All [[instincts]] are now seen as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libido libidinal] whereas the [[ego]]—at the expense of its largely [[unconscious]] [[function]]—more clearly takes charge of all [[adaptive]] functions (in the service of one of its "masters," the [[reality]] of the external world, though [[simultaneously]] tyrannized by the other two, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_super-ego id and the superego]). The result is that, in the structural theory with the notion of [[conflict]] among the agencies, the [[status]] of the notion of "self-preservation" becomes [[relatively]] uncertain and the [[expression]] "ego instincts" tends to disappear from Freudian vocabulary.
However, several post-Freudian trends have again highlighted the [[value]] of the notions of self-preservation [[instincts]] and [[ego]] instincts, particularly the Paris psychosomatic school.[http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX3435301336&v=2.1&u=tel_a_uots&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w]
[[Category: Biology]]
[[Category: Psychology]]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17th_century 17th Century]
==Definition==
*An [[intuitive]] [[response]] [[thought]] to be [[instinctive]] in [[animals]], which prompts whichever [[behaviour]] promises the best [[chance]] of [[survival]].
*The preservation of one's [[existence]]; esp. applied to the [[natural law]] or [[instinct]] which impels living [[creatures]] to take measures to prolong life and avoid [[injury]].
==Description==
The term '''self-preservation''' in its simplest definition describes both the set of [[behaviors]] by means of which [[individuals]] attempt to preserve their own [[existence]] and the psychical [[processes]] that establish these behaviors.
In an initial period of his work [[Freud]] associated these [[behaviors]] with the [[sexual]] [[instincts]]. He claimed that a [[person]]'s life is conditioned by two major [[forces]]: self-preservation [[instincts]], by means of which people preserve their own [[existence]], and [[sexual]] instincts, by means of which they ensure the [[survival]] of the [[species]]. This, he asserted, was [[fundamental]] [[biological]] [[data]], adding that, as simple [[observation]] [[illustrates]], they can be [[opposed]] in [[conflicts]] that result in the [[essentials]] of psychic [[dynamics]].
Although the notion of "self-preservation" itself did not appear until later, we find it foreshadowed as early as 1895 in "A Project for a Scientific Psychology" ([[Freud]], 1950a), in which [[Freud]] accords major importance to [[attention]] viewed as the cathexis of [[perception]] and [[thought]] processes by the [[ego]] for the [[purpose]] of [[adaptation]]. He did not however explicitly formulate his [[thesis]] until 1910 in an article on "The Psychoanalytic View of Psychogenic Disturbance of Vision" (1910i, pp. 209-218), where he evoked "the undeniable [[opposition]] between the [[instincts]] which subserve [[sexuality]], the [[attainment]] of sexual [[pleasure]], and those other [[instincts]], which have as their aim the self-preservation of the [[individual]], the [[ego]] instincts" (p. 214). He was to return to this question and [[discuss]] it in greater detail in "Instincts and their Vicissitudes" (1915c, p. 124): "I have proposed that two groups of such primal [[instincts]] should be distinguished: the [[ego]], or self-preservative, [[instincts]] and the sexual instincts." He added cautiously—and somewhat short of his earlier affirmation that it was "fundamental biological data"—that it was merely a working [[hypothesis]].
In this passage we notice that in [[accordance]] with the approach opened up in the "Project," he considers "self-preservative [[instincts]]" and "[[ego]] instincts" as being [[equivalent]] terms and that they are indeed [[instincts]]. However, "As the [[poet]] has said, all the organic instincts [. . .] may be [[classified]] as '[[hunger]]' or '[[love]]' " (1910i, p. 214-215). This brings up the question as to what is a purely organic need (Berdürfnis), what is instinctive [[behavior]] (Instinkt, in the sense of [[preformed]] and [[automatically]] [[executed]] [[behavior]]), and what is drive (Trieb, in the sense of a "borderline-[[concept]]" between the organic and the psychic). [[Freud]] was to be much more explicit on this question in relation to psychosexuality than in [[relation]] to self-preservation, which was relegated somewhat to the rear of his [[theoretical]] preoccupations. This [[opposition]]-[[complementarity]] nevertheless plays an important role in the [[theory]] that the [[sexual]] [[instincts]] are connected to the self-preservation instincts, based on the first case of sucking (1905d), and in the [[opposition]] between the [[pleasure]] principle and the [[reality]] principle: the ego instincts force the way to the [[reality]] principle, whereas the sexual instincts remain much more durably in the service of the [[pleasure]] principle (1911b).
With the arrival of the structural theory and the second theory of [[instincts]] opposing life instincts and [[death]] instincts, the question takes on new [[dimensions]]. All [[instincts]] are now seen as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libido libidinal] whereas the [[ego]]—at the expense of its largely [[unconscious]] [[function]]—more clearly takes charge of all [[adaptive]] functions (in the service of one of its "masters," the [[reality]] of the external world, though [[simultaneously]] tyrannized by the other two, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_super-ego id and the superego]). The result is that, in the structural theory with the notion of [[conflict]] among the agencies, the [[status]] of the notion of "self-preservation" becomes [[relatively]] uncertain and the [[expression]] "ego instincts" tends to disappear from Freudian vocabulary.
However, several post-Freudian trends have again highlighted the [[value]] of the notions of self-preservation [[instincts]] and [[ego]] instincts, particularly the Paris psychosomatic school.[http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX3435301336&v=2.1&u=tel_a_uots&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w]
[[Category: Biology]]
[[Category: Psychology]]
