Panel on 'Aggression'1

Chairman: Martin H. Stein, New York

Members: Joseph Sandler, London; Hanna Segal, London; Rudolph M. Loewenstein, New York; Avelino Gonzalez, Mexico

Panel Discussion at the 27th International Psycho-Analytical Congress, Vienna, 26 July 1971

In his opening remarks, the chairman of the panel, Martin H. Stein, said that the difficulty of the subject to be studied was no justification for pessimism. Replying to questions about the usefulness of the psychoanalyst's contribution, he asked: 'Who will evolve the proper answer if not we?' Psychoanalysts have a unique contribution to make owing to their privileged access to the psychological processes of human functioning, through the study of the unconscious processes, particularly transference phenomena. No matter how subject to human error, as a technique of investigation psychoanalysis is still not adequately utilized for the study of aggression. If there is anything at fault in our technique, 'it is the clouded vision of the viewer, not the microscope he employs'.

In an attempt to state briefly where psycho-analysts stand in regard to the problem of aggression, Martin H. Stein divided psycho-analysts into four groups:

• a.Those who follow Freud's original formulation of the death instinct. This conception encompasses a death instinct comparable to libido. Melanie Klein was the leading exponent of this theory.

• b.Those who consider that libido and aggression may be dealt with in a parallel, if not in an identical, way. They accept the existence of an aggressive energy comparable to libido. This concept neither includes nor excludes the existence of a primary destructive instinct, but it does postulate two types of energy. Hartmann, Kris and Loewenstein are among the main exponents of this point of view, and most recently Brenner, although in somewhat different language.

• c.There are those who reject the necessity for any concept of primary aggression. Instead of viewing aggression as primary, they regard it as 'a way of