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The drive revisited: Mastery and satisfaction.
1Paris Psychoanalytic Society, 187 rue Saint Jacques, 75005, Paris, France. paul.denis5@wanadoo.fr.
The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis
|December 9, 2015
Summary
This study proposes a new drive model integrating libido and mastery, explaining how representations manage object absence. It redefines destructiveness as "mastery madness" rather than the death drive.
Area of Science:
- Psychoanalytic theory
- Psychology
- Psychodynamic theory
Background:
- Freud's theories of libido, satisfaction, and mastery are foundational.
- Existing models struggle to reconcile pleasure-seeking and object-seeking drives.
- Understanding object relations requires a nuanced view of infantile sexuality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a novel model of the drive by integrating libidinal cathexis and mastery.
- To differentiate between representations, imagos, and traumatic images.
- To re-evaluate destructiveness within a psychoanalytic framework.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical model construction based on Freudian concepts.
- Analysis of libidinal cathexis, object appropriation, and satisfaction.
- Distinction between drive-related representations and non-drive-related excitations.
Main Results:
- A drive model is proposed, combining mastery-oriented and pleasure-oriented libidinal currents.
- Representations are formed from combined cathexes, enabling tolerance of object absence.
- A distinction is made between satisfaction-conveying representations and non-integrating imagos/traumatic images.
Conclusions:
- The proposed model reconciles pleasure-seeking and object-seeking perspectives.
- Object relations can be understood through their connection to infantile sexuality.
- Destructiveness is reframed as "mastery madness," distinct from the death drive.
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