You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The paper is divided into four paragraphs in accordance with the
four stages of development of the theory of impulses. (1) In the first stage two groups of impulses, i.e. sexual and ego-impulses, were postulated. Sexual instincts were thoroughly investigated while ego-impulses remained, at first, relatively unknown. (2) In the second stage the concept of narcissism was introduced into the libido-theory, which resulted in the discovery of the libidinal parts of ego-impulses. Freud, however, maintained that, apart from the libidinal part, there was another original, non-libidinal one, which he simply called 'interest' in the sense of a non-libidinal egotism. (3) The third stage, which has frequently been over looked, attributed aggressive tendencies to ego-impulses as an essential factor. (4) The fourth stage has its origin in the progressing knowledge of the structure of the whole psychic apparatus: its division into various layers, the id as a vital layer, the ego as the organized part of the id, and particularly the super-ego as the unconscious part of the ego. This view does not regard aggressive tendencies as original parts of ego-impulses, but considers them as independent impulses of aggression or destruction and locates them with the sexual impulses in the vital layer. Ego-impulses lose their independent character and are taken as derivatives partly of the libidinal and partly of the aggressive impulses.