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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1977

[The comparison of human reflex and instinct behaviour (author's transl)].

On the basis of characteristics of the exteroceptive reflexes and of the instincts it was shown that instinct behaviour developed from reflex characteristics (local characteristic of the stimuli, pos. and neg. taxis, habituation, conditioning). Most similarities are found between reflex and avoidance instinct behaviour (instincts for excretion, thermoregulation, body care, pain avoidance and safety). Except the safety instinct, all others react on stimuli, characterised by the localisation of the receptors. In the safety instinct the structure of the stimulus becomes important, together with the growing importance of the third dimension. This instinct shows also for the first time a variability of the threshold with spontaneous remaining low for some time after stimulation of the system. Inverse the gain instincts (nutrition, sex and social instinct). Here the threshold falls spontaneously, when stimuli are lacking and raises, when stimuli are found. The spontaneous motor expression of the lowering of the threshold is the appetite behaviour. It means seeking stimuli, which will be gained by elements of the initial and terminal success behaviour. The successfull nutritional and sexual behaviour is stopped by success inhibition, whereas the social instinct remains in the terminal success behaviour with group dynamic hierarchy, with imitating and helping behaviour. Overchanging of the gain instincts provokes avoidance behaviour with constant threshold. The neural systems of most reflexes lie distributed in the spinal cord and brainstem, the ones of the instincts in the limbic part of the brain, the nutrition and sex instinct with a hypothalamic pacemaker. Simultaneous activation of two or many instinct motivation systems result, not comparable with the direct reflex interaction, in interactions on the level of the global interaction, in interactions on the level of the global integration (summation, mixture, synthesis, rest, oscillation, intention) which projects the activity patterns via the motor cortex to the peripheral neurons. There it is completed by the reflexes. The hormonal and vegetative projection instead go directly to the end organs. The motivation is responsible for the subjective experience, the dominating integration with its motor projection for the instinct behaviour.

Behavior↗
PubMed1977

[Disturbances of the human instinct behaviour in hypothalamic lesions (author's transl)].

Since the findings of W.R. Hess, who systematically stimulated the hypothalamus of the cat, motivational systems for instinct behaviour have been postulated in the hypothalamus and the surrounding limbic brain. It has been asked, if hypothalamic lesions in man would cause alterations in instinct behaviour, which could be attributed to the instinct motivational systems. Therefore 19 patients with hypothalamic lesions have been examined in respect of their instinct behaviour. They showed no qualitative alteration in their instinct behaviour, but quantitative diminution and rarefication of their gain instincts (nutritional, sexual and social instinct). Mainly reduced was the sex instinct together with hormonal deficiency. Inversely the safety instinct (the only avoidance instinct with variable threshold) was more often activated. The other avoidance instincts (for excretion, thermo-regulation, bodycare and painavoidance) remained intact. It is concluded that the pacemaker for the threshold of the gain instincts and of the safety instinct is disturbed and not the motivation system in its qualitative functioning. As this pacemaker is so characteristically different in each instinct, the theory of different specific motivational systems is more probable than the theory of one unspecific system with different functions.

Brain Diseases↗
PubMed2003

Thanatos and massive psychic trauma: the impact of the death instinct on knowing, remembering, and forgetting.

The connection between massive psychic trauma and the concept of the death instinct is explored using the basic assumptions that the death instinct is unleashed through and is in a sense characteristic of traumatic experience, and that the concept of the death instinct is indispensable to the understanding and treatment of trauma. Characteristics of traumatic experience, such as dissolution of the empathic bond, failure to assimilate experience into psychic representation and structure, a tendency to repeat traumatic experience, and a resistance to remembering and knowing, are considered as trauma-induced death instinct derivatives. An initial focus is on the individual, on how death instinct manifestations can be discerned in the survivors of trauma. Next the intergenerational force of trauma is examined; a clinical vignette illustrates how the death instinct acts on and is passed on to the children of survivors. Finally, the cultural or societal aspects of trauma are considered, with an eye to how death instinct derivatives permeate cultural responses (or failures to respond) to trauma. Because trauma causes a profound destructuring and decathexis, it is concluded that the concept of the death instinct is a clinical and theoretical necessity.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

On the clinical usefulness of the concept of death instinct.

Freud's concept of the death instinct is often considered as a purely biological speculation, and very few psychoanalysts consider it useful in clinical work. Yet Freud was led to it by purely clinical problems. Klein used Freud's concept of the duality of instinct in her clinical work, but mainly she addressed herself to the conflict between love and hate of the object, considering hate as an expression of the deflected death instinct. I contend that the death instinct from the beginning is directed at both the perceived object and the perceiving self, resulting in such phenomena as pathological projective identification, described by Bion. The defences against the death instinct create vicious circles leading to severe pathology. I try to show in some clinical examples how analysing those vicious circles, and confronting the death instinct in the stable setting of analytic work, can lead to a mobilisation of the life forces in the patient.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

[Instinct therapy--raw food with meat with exclusion of milk products. Report No. 16].

Instinct therapy is a diet consisting exclusively of food in its natural form, which has not been subjected to cooking, preserving or seasoning. Dairy products are forbidden. Indications are numerous and rather imprecise including especially cancer. Burger developed Instinct therapy in 1964 as a diet according to his own philosophy. 1980 he left Switzerland because the practice of "metasexuality" had caused him problems with the law. He founded a school of Instinct therapy in 1982 in France and published his book "La guerre du cru" (The Raw Food Fight) in 1985. In Switzerland, Besuchet took on the teaching of Burger in 1978 and was very active in giving lectures. He died in June 1985 of mediastinal cancer. According to Burger, man originally ate raw food and his instinct has not evolved since those pre-historic times, but has been "artificially modified" by cooked food and the consumption of non-human milk. If man could re-develop his natural instinct and eat only fresh food, which is not prepared in any way, he could solve his health problems and restore defenses against diseases such that these could become beneficial. Cooked food, milk and cereals are thought to be the cause of cancer but instinctive eating would help to avoid or to cure cancer. No preclinical or clinical trials have been carried out. The theories of Burger and Besuchet are based on unverifiable personal experiences.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

The death instinct.

The death instinct has always been a controversial concept, insufficient to account for actual dying, and usually taken to be fused with aggression. After dislodging it from the shadow of aggression in order to evaluate its function, the instinct turns out to be one of the components that form the death motivation. Human beings develop a complex motivation for death, one that is more than biology (instincts) or physics (entropy). It includes (a) the death instinct, the primary analogue; (b) sequellae of the universal experience of object-loss, with identification and fantasies of a restorative reunion; (c) guilt over hostile attitudes toward the lost object, with depression, longings for atonement , and self-punishment; (d) compliance with reality, like that of old age or grave sickness. Examined in light of the complementary series of Freud's aetiological equation, the death instinct turns into a precondition of the composition motivation. Death motivation is a comprehensive concept, since patients express various of its aspects during their psychoanalyses , and it facilitates a metapsychological understanding and refines the accuracy of interpretation.

Aggression↗
PubMed1977

Lloyd Morgan's theory of instinct: from Darwinism to neo-Darwinism.

Darwin's proposal of two sources of instinct--natural selection and inherited habit--fostered among late nineteenth century evolutionists a variety of conflicting notions concerning the mechanisms of evolution. The British comparative psychologist C. Lloyd Morgan was a cardinal figure in restructuring the orthodox Darwinian conception to relieve the confusion besetting it and to meet the demands of the new biology of Weismann. This paper traces the development of Morgan's ideas about instinct against the background of his philosophic assumptions and the views of instinct theorists from Darwin and Romanes to McDougall and Lorenz.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Native Americans and the constant death instinct hypothesis.

To test Tabachnick and Klugman's hypothesis that the amount of death instinct per capita in different regions is constant, 1975-1977 death rates for motor vehicle accidents, cirrhosis, and suicide were obtained from the US Indian Health Service for all 11 health service areas. In contrast to predictions derived from the hypothesis that the death instinct is constant, no negative correlations were found among these three variables. Although an analysis of other behaviors might yield different findings, these results do not support an hypothesis of a constant death instinct among Indian Health Service regions.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The significance of Kleinian contributions to psychoanalysis I. Kleinian instinct theory.

The history of Freud's instinct theory shows that it ambiguously contains two separate roots of developments; one, the nutritional-transactional, and the other, the autoerotic discharge model. The former is the forerunner of Klein's instinct theory and the latter is considered classical theory. Kleinians and Freudians have not fully understood that each holds an instinct theory which is quite different from the other. The consequences of this theoretical dialectic are of great importance in distinguishing the Kleinian theory of fantasy from the Freudian theory of fantasy, the theory of repression, the theory of the unconscious, and ultimately the theory of the internal world.

Fantasy↗
PubMed1995

[Maternal instinct in women with complicated pregnancy].

Maternal instinct was evaluated in women with complicated pregnancy by means of inquiry. Perception of the first fetal movements by pregnant women in as important moment in maternal instinct development. Pregnant women with bad obstetrical history show greater anxiety about unborn yet child. Intensity of maternal instinct is similar in multiparas and nulliparas.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Pavlov's conceptualization of unconditional reflexes, or instincts, within the framework of the theory of higher nervous activity.

According to I. P. Pavlov's theory of higher nervous activity, the establishment and dissolution of conditional reflexes enhances the higher organism's adaptation to the external environment. Pavlov asserted that, ontogenetically, conditional reflexes are based upon innate, unconditional reflexes (UR) or instincts. Pavlov did not distinguish between URs and instincts, but he preferred the former term. Phylogenetically the URs emerged out of well-established conditional reflexes during the development of higher organisms. An outgrowth of the experimental conditioning procedure, developed during the second decade of this century, was the observation and delineation of new URs. While studying human nervous and psychiatric disorders in the 1930s, Pavlov elucidated other URs. Pavlov identified 13 major URs, but he failed to formulate an exhaustive classification scheme of URs.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

The death instinct and the future of humans.

Freud's notion of the "death instinct" has been conceived of by many subsequent authors in many ways. One of the misuses of it is as an excuse for passivity in the face of the current crisis in human affairs. This paper reviews the "death instinct" concept and attempts to understand the disavowal of the dangers to our species and our planet on the basis of our current narcissistic cultural orientation. It examines the use of praxis by a variety of continental thinkers to counter this disavowal and emphasizes the obligation of all mental health professionals to participate, through direct action and through educational contributions, in the elimination of these evils.

Aggression↗
PubMed1983

Is child abuse a human instinct?

The modern concept of instinct maintains that certain physical signs or events trigger the release of appropriate behavioural responses. According to Konrad Lorenz and other ethological theorists, the features and proportions of the infant body and face convey a sense of cuteness which releases a protective human instinct. Members of the Lorenz-Tinbergen school may also regard violent crime or war as manifestations of aggressive drives. A survey of medical and sociological literature shows that the rate of abuse and neglect of infants and children is higher than violent crimes against adults, which reveals a contradiction in basic premises.

Adolescent↗