Freud on “Mind”-“Body” II: Drive, Motivation, Meaning, History, and Freud’s Psychological Heuristic; with Clinical and Everyday Examples

Abstract

It is for convenience only that I am presenting Freud's more-purely psychological concepts and heuristic in a separate chapter. In actuality, as we have already seen to some extent; the psychoneurobiological/"instinctual" and psychogenetic/dynamic facets of Freud's thinking went--and were often presented--hand-in-hand. At the outset of this essay, I demonstrate some of the linkages between the two. These are not subsequently reiterated; though the reader should bear them constantly in mind. Freud's psychological constructs and heuristic are two-dimensional without methodological exemplifications of them. Consequently, investigative and exploratory/therapeutic vignettes are included. There also are instances, which support core-concepts such as the Oedipus complex, childhood sexuality generally, the latency stage, repression and the return of the repressed, and the impact of childhood/adolescent history on adult personality and psychopathology. The chapter ends with "The Prehistory of Psychic Causalilty and Historical Determinism." This section explores the thinking of precursors who importantly influenced Freud in these ideas--from the seventeenth-century through the early- and mid-nineteenth; and with a short treatment of Freud's hard determinism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)