Unconscious Drives Reimagined

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.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Berne

(1957). A layman's guide to psychiatry and psychoanalysis. New York: Grove Press. (Original work published 1947 as The mind in action).

English

(1998). The forces within us [DVD]. San Francisco: International Transactional Analysis Association. [To order, visit www.itaa-net.org].

English

(2001). Family influences and unconscious drives: Motivators for career choices. Career Planning and Adult Development Journal, 17(2), 19–26.

English

(2003). How are you? How am I? In Sills

Hargaden

(Eds), Ego states (Vol. 1 of Key concepts in transactional analysis: Contemporary views) (pp. 55–72). London. Worth Publishing.

English

(2005). Unconscious constraints on freedom and responsibility. Presentation at the World TA Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland.

English

Pischetsrieder

(1996). Ich — Beruf Leben, Beziehungen [Myself — career, life, relationships]. Hamburg, Germany: Pischetsrieder Consulting, GmbH.

Freud

(1925). Die traumdeutung [The interpretation of dreams]. In Freud

, Gesammdelte Schriften (Vol. 2). Wien, Austria: Intemationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag. (Original work published 1900).

Freud

(1949). Abriss der psychananalyse [An outline of psychoanalysis] ( Strachey

, Trans). New York: Norton. (Original work published 1940).

Freud

(1955). Beyond the pleasure principle. In Strachey

(Ed. & Trans), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 18, pp. 7–66). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1920).

10.

Freud

(1957). Instincts and their vicissitudes. In Strachey

(Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 14, pp. 117–140). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1915).

11.

Freud

(1961a). The ego and the id. In Strachey

(Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 19, pp. 12–68). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1923).

12.

Freud

(1961b). The interpretation of dreams ( Strachey

, Trans). New York: Wiley. (Original work published 1900).

13.

Freud

(1964). Analysis terminable and interminable. In Strachey

(Ed. & Trans), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 23, pp. 209–254). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1937).

14.

Jones

(1961). The life and work of Sigmund Freud. New York: Basic Books/Anchor. (Original work published 1953).

15.

Jung

C. G.

(1966). The spirit in man, art and literature ( Hull

R. F. C.

, Trans). New York: Princeton/Bollingen. (Original work published 1922).

16.

Pierre

(2007). Retrouver el developer son energie vitale [How to find and develop one's vital energy]. Paris: InterEditions — Dunod.

17.

Shakespeare

(2008). Macbeth. Retrieved 4 September 2008 from http://www.clicknotes.com/macbeth/T51.html. (Original work published c. 1623).