You know what they are instincts If you have come this far, you either don't know, or you want to know a little more, don't you? instincts In addition to an overview, we will talk about the subject from the point of view of Psychoanalysis, more specifically, how Freud sees the instincts .

After all, knowledge is never too much, is it?

Also, don't forget that at the end of the article we have a space for you to leave your question, comment, or suggestion, so we'll be happy to know what you thought of the article and also what you understand about instincts .

What is the general concept about instincts

We can think about the instincts as notions divided into two spheres: animals and humans.

Animal

The discussion about the animal part is a little simpler. instincts are the typical behaviors that animals exhibit. However, they are behaviors mostly related to survival. What does this mean? It means that at times when the animal feels threatened it will act in a way that is expected. So the threat is not always on him directly, but it can also be a threat to his group, species.

And, in the case of animals, the behavior happens as a result of a stimulus. That is, when the behavior is provoked, the animal doesn't stop until it does what it feels is necessary. Thus, we can say that it needs something to start acting, but its development is automatic and its end cannot be manipulated.

Furthermore, it must be said that these behaviors follow certain patterns. For example, a lion will not start having a hundred cubs in a litter so as not to wipe out his species, as insects do. In the same way, insects will not kill zebras for food. So there is no teaching. The animal is born knowing what to do when the time comes and Among the various existing types of instinctive behavior, we can highlight the following:

• migrations;
• the defense ones;
• to protect the offspring;
• and the attack ones.

Humans

Now, the human instincts After all, considering that human beings are rational and live in cultural communities, determining how they function is more difficult.

One has to ask oneself if behavior patterns are innate, or if they are learned, or even if human beings can somehow control their own behavior. instincts ... after all, There are patterns that do not vary, for example: a mother breastfeeding a child. And in situations of extreme danger one will seek to survive. However, is that all there is to it?

Sigmund Freud was one of the people who did the most work on the subject, so in the following we will talk about him, what constitutes his research, and how he sees it. instincts .

Who is Sigmund Freud

Biography

Sigmund Schlomo Freud was born on October 6, 1856, in Freiberg in Mähren in the former Austrian Empire, the son of Jacob Freud and Amelie Nathanson, and his family was Jewish. Freud entered medical school at the University of Vienna when he was only 17.

From these studies, a new theory was created, which is of great importance to psychology. This theory will be discussed in the next topics.

Freud married Martha Bernays on September 14, 1886 in Hamburg. Meeting and wishing to marry Bernays was an important event for Freud, not only for sentimental reasons, but for his career.

Since research did not provide much financial return, Freud began working in hospitals. Such a situation opened horizons for Freud, such as working in a renowned psychiatric hospital that promoted studies on hysteria. So, with this, his focus of care changed and he began to have more contact with apparently neurological symptom sets.

Life during and after the Nativity

During Nazism, five of Freud's sisters died in the concentration camps. In 1938, because of this problem, Freud took refuge in England where he remained until he died in 1939 at the age of 83. His death was due to a cancer that made him feel a lot of pain.

During their marriage they had six children: Mathilde (1887), Jean-Martin (1889), Oliver (1891), Sophie (1893) and Anna (1895). Anna did not have her desired birth, and Freud remained chaste so as not to have any more children after her. Although he did not initially desire her, Freud maintained close ties with Anna throughout his life.

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Not much is known about Freud's early life, because twice he destroyed his writings. It was his official biographer, Ernest Jones, who protected the later ones. So, what we know for sure is that Freud is one of the leading scholars on human instincts, and his new theory called psychoanalysis came to break new ground regarding this concept.

What is Psychoanalysis

Freud established that people who didn't put their feelings out were sick in their minds, so that these people, according to him, were able to shut these feelings away in their minds to such an extent that they forgot about them. However, to forget is not to make disappear. As such, these repressed feelings could resurface and have a negative impact.

Psychoanalysis comes to try to explain how the mind works, with the objective of developing a therapy for mental disorders and neuroses. This theoretical line seeks to relate the desires of the unconscious with people's behavior and feelings.

Thus, if for Freud it is the repression of feelings that causes the sick mind, then psychoanalysis comes with the purpose of analyzing them. Not just analyze it, but put it out there and understand how it works and how to treat it.

Theory of Mind

Given this focus on the mind, the theory is also known as the "theory of mind". As we said above, instincts are directly linked to behavior. And if psychoanalysis analyzes behavior, then how does it view instincts under this view? In the next topic we will tell you.

What are instincts for Freud

For Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, Instincts are not inherited, but are internal stimuli of the body. He divided the instincts into two categories:

• Life : In this category are behaviors such as sex, hunger, and thirst. They concern survival, that is, creative forces to sustain the existence of the species.
• Death : Here are behaviors such as masochism, suicide, aggression, and hatred. Such behaviors are the result of destructive forces and can be directed at oneself or at others.

Despite the classificatory division, for Freud, the two types of instincts have some kind of union. For him, one of the stimulating factors of the instincts is the libido. For example, sexual behavior to preserve life has its valve in the libido.

His studies have focused on the libido for a long time, The studies on the reprimands, on the other hand, have also studied how certain reprimands can interfere with this behavior. instincts of death were more analyzed after the first World War and the beginning of his illness.

Freud perceived a tendency to destroy organic life in order to return to an inorganic state, that is, to destroy the pain so that the pain will end. However, since many pains are internal, this destruction would be to destroy oneself.

Final considerations

As we have just seen, for Freud, when instincts happen in an unusual way, they need to be taken care of. After all, we are rational beings and have some control over our instincts, but when we can't control them, it may mean that something in our mind is wrong.

For example, it is not because we have a sexual instinct that we can perform it regardless of anything. A person who cannot control this instinct, or who represses it at all costs, may have some trauma related to it.

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In light of the above, it is recommended that we be conscious and seek help when we find ourselves in out-of-control situations. There are people who have studied tirelessly about this and are willing to help. This is the case with the professors of our Clinical Psychoanalysis course. We suggest you check out their proposal!

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We are thinking people and we must seek to act as such. instincts What do you think? Do you agree with Freud? Have you studied the subject? Tell us about it in the comments.