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No living organism can survive only by withdrawal from the excessive stimulation which causes unpleasure, or through protection by the stimulus barrier. Without approach responses no sustenance can be found. In lower animals most functioning, especially approach and withdrawal responses, is still overwhelmingly dependent on external stimulation; hence Descartes' statement: “Animal non agit, agitur.”
I have already discussed (Chapter 7) the evolutional development of somatic apparatuses which have resulted in a gradual shift away from primary dependence on external stimulation. This evolutional development, which has reached its peak in man, has led, among other things, to a progressive internalization (Hartmann, 1939) and to the development of the instinctual drives; to the organism's readiness to respond to more and more complex stimuli; and to the development of approach apparatuses which seek and find adequate stimuli and respond to them. While species-specific behavior patterns (“instincts”) are still greatly stimulus-bound in most animals, in man the instinctual drives, as represented by “wishes,” are to a considerable extent the motives of behavior.
Eventually, evolution in man resulted in the development of the ego, which became the main “organ of adaptation” (Hartmann, 1939). Once developed, it not only accounted for