Abstract

BARBOSA, Maria Nadeje Pereira  and  SANTOS, Manoel Antonio dos. Considerations about the biological dimension of the instinct concept in Freud. Psicol. Reflex. Crit. [online]. 2005, vol.18, n.2, pp. 162-170. ISSN 0102-7972.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0102-79722005000200003.

In the present report we postulate the existence of a biological dimension implicit in the concept of instinct in Freud's work, related to the enigmatic nature of the genesis and development of the psychic apparatus. Since in Freudian thought there is a tension between two discourse modalities, the first related to the developments of the structural hypothesis about the subconscious and the second functioning as a gravitational center for theoretical constructs derived from psysiology and biology, certain lines of force are established which permeate Freudian thought, designated as evolutionary variants and broken down into evolutionary-ontogenetic-derivative, evolutionary-phylogenetic-instinctive and evolutionary-ontogenetic-constitutive variants. At the end of the article we propose that, with the expansion of psychoanalysis, it might perhaps be possible to traslate into a metapsychological language the frontier aspects of Freudian reflection.

Keywords : Instinct; Freud; psychoanalysis; biology.