Skip to Main Content
4
Views
2
CrossRef citations
Altmetric

Article

Unconscious Drives Reimagined

Pages 238-246
Published online: 28 Dec 2017
 
Translator disclaimer

Freud's early concepts about the unconscious are presented along with his later definition of the id as a portion of the larger unconscious. He described this id as holding genetically determined drives that comprise the fusion of two primal forces, Eros and destructiveness. Influenced by Freud and Jung's mythological analogies, the author identifies three unconscious drives (rather than two), which she refers to as “motivators” to distinguish them from Freud's drives. In the spirit of Jung, these unconscious motivators are imagined as Olympian goddesses named Survia, Passia, and Transcia. Each may affect a person independently or in combinations by stimulating particular feelings and thoughts that may surface in any ego state. Since motivators have divergent aims and functions, inner conflicts can occur if they do not take turns influencing a person. For better or worse, the conscious Parent or Adult ego states can sometimes control or steer behaviors stimulated by one or more of the motivators.

Additional information

Author information

Fanita English

Fanita English, M.S.W., Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst, originally trained and worked as a psychoanalyst but happily shifted to transactional analysis in 1964 after reading Berne. As a two-time Eric Berne Award winner, since 1981 she has conducted workshops internationally teaching transactional analysis and her own material. She lives at 1, Baldwin Ave., #516, San Mateo, California, U.S.A.; e-mail: .
 

People also read