IPA Inter-Regional Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychoanalysis

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Object : The object is the target of the drive and serves as means for satisfaction by abreacting psychic tension, until ‘catharsis’ is achieved. The object comprises an ambiguity: 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 also a “social” montage and the drive appears as a support to the relationship. The most logical interpretation would be that the internal representation is superimposed on an external object, and vice versa, so, in short, the object would be internal/external. Pressure : Pressure is the quantitative aspect of the drive; no to it, the drive “pulsates,” or “drives” the subject (Freud also says in 1915 [p. 122] that pressure is the “very essence” of the drive). Pressure opens the question of intensity and of the origin of the differences of intensity of the drive. Do innate factors intervene in the variations of intensity? And how are these innate factors combined with factors linked to the history of the subject? What impact do the relations of the subject have on drive intensity? Aim : The aim of the drive is a complex issue. A priori the aim is satisfaction, that is, pleasure or the avoidance of displeasure. The aim of the drive is thus directly linked to the pleasure principle (the reason for behavior is the search for pleasure). Pleasure, again, may be seen as the total extinction of excitation (the so-called Nirvana principle ), or as the absence of rise in excitation level (the so-called principle of constancy ). There is also the issue of “passive” or “active” aim; the drive (in itself) is always active, but it can have a “passive aim”; it then actively seeks passivity. Concerning transformations, Freud writes: “Preliminary stages of love emerge as provisional sexual aims while the sexual instincts are passing through their complicated development. As the first of these aims, we recognize the phase of incorporating or devouring a type of love which is consistent with abolishing the ‘bject’s separate existence and which may therefore be described as ambivalent. (…) Love in this form and at this preliminary stage is hardly to be distinguished from hate in its attitude towards the object” (1915a, pp.138-139). Through the process of the antithetical pair sadism-masochism, Freud studies the bonds between the subject and the object. In a footnote (Ibid, pp 127-28), he states that “As a’rule ‘s’bject’ and ‘‘bject’ are used respectively for the person in whom an instinct (or other state of mind) originates, and the person or thing to which it is directed. Here, how’ver, ‘s’bject’ seems to be used for the person who plays the active part in the relatio–ship - the agent.” He also describes the “exercise of violence or power upon some other person as object”, which is sadism. But further he adds that “Psycho-analysis would appear to show that the infliction of pain plays no part among the original purposive actions of the instinct. A sadistic child takes no account of whether or not he inflicts pains, nor does he intend to do so.” (Ibid, p.128). In this way, Freud is indicating that destructiveness is neither original nor constitutive in the human being. In a second stage, this object is abandoned and replaced by the subject himself and the active aim of the drive becomes passive. In a third stage, an external person is

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