36 Part II Psychodynamic Theories
Dynamics of Personality
Levels of mental life and provinces of the mind refer to the structure or composi-
tion of personality; but personalities also do something. Thus, Freud postulated a
dynamic, or motivational principle, to explain the driving forces behind people’s
actions. To Freud, people are motivated to seek pleasure and to reduce tension and
anxiety. This motivation is derived from psychical and physical energy that springs
from their basic drives.Drives
Freud used the German word Trieb to refer to a drive or a stimulus within the
person. Freud’s official translators rendered this term as instinct, but more accu-
rately the word should be “drive” or “impulse.” Drives operate as a constant moti-
vational force. As an internal stimulus, drives differ from external stimuli in that
they cannot be avoided through flight.
According to Freud (1933/1964), the various drives can all be grouped under
two major headings: sex or Eros and aggression, distraction, or Thanatos. These
drives originate in the id, but they come under the control of the ego. Each drive
has its own form of psychic energy: Freud used the word libido for the sex drive,
but energy from the aggressive drive remains nameless.
Every basic drive is characterized by an impetus, a source, an aim, and an
object. A drive’s impetus is the amount of force it exerts; its source is the region
of the body in a state of excitation or tension; its aim is to seek pleasure by
removing that excitation or reducing the tension; and its object is the person or
thing that serves as the means through which the aim is satisfied (Freud,
1915/1957a).Sex
The aim of the sexual drive is pleasure, but this pleasure is not limited to genital
satisfaction. Freud believed that the entire body is invested with libido. Besides
the genitals, the mouth and anus are especially capable of producing sexual plea-
sure and are called erogenous zones. The ultimate aim of the sexual drive (reduc-
tion of sexual tension) cannot be changed, but the path by which the aim is reached
can be varied. It can take either an active or a passive form, or it can be temporar-
ily or permanently inhibited (Freud, 1915/1957a). Because the path is flexible and
because sexual pleasure stems from organs other than the genitals, much behavior
originally motivated by Eros is difficult to recognize as sexual behavior. To Freud,
however, all pleasurable activity is traceable to the sexual drive.
The flexibility of the sexual object or person can bring about a further dis-
guise of Eros. The erotic object can easily be transformed or displaced. Libido can
be withdrawn from one person and placed in a state of free-floating tension, or it
can be reinvested in another person, including the self. For example, an infant
prematurely forced to give up the nipple as a sexual object may substitute the
thumb as an object of oral pleasure.
Sex can take many forms, including narcissism, love, sadism, and masoch-
ism. The latter two also possess generous components of the aggressive drive.