IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CLINICAL SITUATION OF REFORMULATION OF THE PSYCHOANALYTIC-THEORY OF AGGRESSION

A brief historical review of the theory of aggression reveals that Freud's death instinct based theory has been questioned by many theorist-clinicians who increasingly have seen the need to account for a primary nondestructive aspect of aggression as well as a primary relationship between aggression and adaptation. There is aggression which is inherently nondestructive alongside inborn aggression that is destructive though not hostile. Critical is the concensus that hostile destructiveness (HD) is not inborn but, rather, that it is ''produced'' when excessive unpleasure (EU) experiencing activates the inborn mechanism which generates HD. Such changes in theory have implications for the psychoanalytic clinical situation. For example, the analysis of transference hate is facilitated when transference interpretations are linked with reconstructions of past traumatic experiences. The influence on interpretations of transference hate of the key hypothesis that ''EU generates HD'', insight into one case of malignant hate, the need for its containment in the transference, the analyst's need for self analysis, and the treatment approach are discussed; so is the need for benign enactments of transference engagement.