The Two Genetic Derivations of Aggression with Reference to Sublimation and Neutralization1

The simultaneous introduction of the second instinct theory and of structural—ego—psychology seems to me to account in some measure for the persistent ambiguity of some analytical concepts and their implications. The second instinct theory suggested that aggression should be regarded as a basic instinct, while structural psychology, establishing the ego as an instance, somehow substituted it for the self-preservative instincts of the first instinct theory. The resultant neglect of the self-preservative instincts, which Freud noted with regret even as late as 1932 (1), to my mind explains our still insufficient understanding of aggression, especially when that concept is used to include what is ordinarily called 'activity'.

To account metapsychologically for two different categories of aggression is the main purpose of my present paper.

Aggression as a dynamic factor in mental life was considered by Freud from the beginning, but the part it played changed with the development of his Instinct Theories. In the First Instinct Theory aggression belonged basically to the self-preservative instincts, and was only a component instinct of sexuality when, in sadism, the sexual instinct came under the sway of the aggressive self-preservative instincts (2), (3). Freud made the various steps in the Instinct Theory (4) to account for clinical findings and with less consideration for immediate conceptualization. Clinical findings in connexion with the psychoses on the one hand and observations on historical events on the other brought aggression more fully into relief. It thus happened that aggression, originally belonging to the self-preservative instincts, became elevated by the fourth step, namely in the Second Instinct Theory (5), to the status of an independent instinct group, and contrasted with the libidinal Eros instincts. The self-preservative instincts lost their independent status and, originally classed as aggressive, were now subordinated to the libidinal instinc