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Abstract

Freud's early concepts about the unconscious are presented along with his later definition of the id as a portion of the larger unconscious. He described this id as holding genetically determined drives that comprise the fusion of two primal forces, Eros and destructiveness. Influenced by Freud and Jung's mythological analogies, the author identifies three unconscious drives (rather than two), which she refers to as “motivators” to distinguish them from Freud's drives. In the spirit of Jung, these unconscious motivators are imagined as Olympian goddesses named Survia, Passia, and Transcia. Each may affect a person independently or in combinations by stimulating particular feelings and thoughts that may surface in any ego state. Since motivators have divergent aims and functions, inner conflicts can occur if they do not take turns influencing a person. For better or worse, the conscious Parent or Adult ego states can sometimes control or steer behaviors stimulated by one or more of the motivators.

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Unconscious Drives Reimagined

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