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Pressure Pressure is the quantitative aspect of the drive; the drive “pulsates,” or “drives” the subject (Freud 1915b, p. 122), and that pressure is the “very essence” of the drive. Pressure opens the questions of the origin of the differences of intensity of the drive. In complex ways, Freud contemplates, if and how innate factors intervene in the variations of intensity. How are these innate factors combined with factors linked to the history of the subject, and, what impact do the relations of the subject have on drive intensity, and other similar inquiries are further elaborated in post-Freudian theorizing, with answers falling along the full sectrum of the complemental series. Aim In Freud’s words, “The aim [Ziel] of an instinct is in every instance satisfaction, which can only be obtained by removing the state of stimulation at the source of the instinct. But although the ultimate aim of each instinct remains unchangeable, there may yet be different paths leading to the same ultimate aim; so that an instinct may be found to have various nearer or intermediate aims, which are combined or interchanged with one another. Experience permits us also to speak of instincts which are ‘inhibited in their aim’, in the case of processes which are allowed to make some advance towards instinctual satisfaction but are then inhibited or deflected…” (Freud 1915b, p.123). The aim of the drive is a complex issue. It is directly linked to the pleasure principle (the reason for behavior is the search for pleasure), with pleasure seen as the total extinction of excitation ( principle of inertia ), or as the absence of rise in excitation level ( principle of constancy ). Object Through its object [Objekt], the instinct is able to achieve its aim. “It is what is most variable about an instinct and is not originally connected with it, but becomes assigned to it only in consequence of being peculiarly fitted to make satisfaction (aim) possible. The object is not necessarily something extraneous: it may equally well be a part of the subject's own body. It may be changed any number of times in the course of the vicissitudes which the instinct undergoes during its existence.” (Freud 1915b, p. 122). Too close an attachment of the instinct to its object is distinguished by the term ‘fixation’. Fixation impedes drive’s mobility. Thus, the object comprises an ambiguity, elaboration of which would be a matter of post-Freudian scholarship: does ‘object’ designate the internal representation of the object or the external object itself? If it designates the internal representation, the drive montage is purely intra-subjective. If it designates the external object, the drive is a ‘social construct’ and it appears as a support to the relationship. Inclusive interpretation, logically following Freud’s complex thought, encompasses both: the internal representation is superimposed on an external object, and vice versa, so, in short, the object is internal/external.
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