Posts by William Morris8

Heh, heh😎

If you look at the Greek root of the word "occupy"—it’s basically how we describe Freudian Occupation: the idea that a certain amount of psychic energy (or libido) gets invested and tied up in specific mental representations, ideas, parts of the body, objects, and so on. It’s really just an attempt to describe the economic processes behind how the mind functions. An investment of energy, I guess.

He talks about tango brilliantly! It reminds me of my old instructor from Buenos Aires—he actually made the jump from classical ballet to tango himself! I think I'll definitely dig a little deeper into what he has to say.

So then our whole debate about drive and instinct is basically irrelevant—just hit me up directly, Brenda Smith!

Not me—is he a neuropsychiatrist, a cognitive specialist, or something along those lines? I guess I'm just surprised to see him leaning so heavily on psychoanalytic concepts, so that's why I'm asking.

Aaaauh! Best of luck! By the way, who actually wrote this?

Besides, you mentioned that the Laplanche and Pontalis translation was already out...

When Freud talks about instinct, he uses the term *Instinkt*, but when he’s referring to a drive, he specifically uses *Trieb*. That distinction—the concept of the drive—is really one of the pillars of his entire theory. He actually refers to the death drive as *Todestrieb*, not *Todesinstinkt*. He originally brought this idea forward after being inspired by his grandson's "Fort-Da" game. It’s worth noting that *Todestrieb* isn't quite as literal regarding actual physical death as a casual reader might assume—it's more complex than that, I guess. Sometimes, Freud would just use *Thanatos*, especially when he wanted to emphasize that duality between life and death drives: Eros / Thanatos.

Instinct is being used in the traditional sense here—you know, like animal instinct or that gut feeling when you sense danger is lurking...

I'm not sure how they handled the translation here, but I can definitely clear something up: Freud makes a huge distinction between instinct and Drive (Trieb). An instinct is basically what’s hardwired into every member of a species—like how a spider just knows how to spin a web—whereas a Drive is this complex concept that links our somatic and psychic functioning. The source and energy come from the body, but the goal and object are represented psychically. He actually puts it this way: 'A Drive is a measure of work demanded by the psyche in its connection to the body.'
In humans, those basic instincts are essentially lost, which is really the whole foundation of the theory of sexuality.
It seems like the English translators just swapped Trieb for "instinct" and completely muddied the waters. It’s honestly a bit problematic because it can flip the entire meaning of the theory into something totally different.
The Ego tries to follow the reality principle—though it doesn't always succeed—mostly because the pleasure principle often fails to account for everything. Sometimes you just have to adapt, be patient, and put in some actual effort instead of immediately jumping at a guy or girl you're interested in.