The Question of Aggressivity in Nietzsche and Pyschoanalysis
The Question of Aggressivity in Nietzsche and Pyschoanalysis

Author(s): Yunus Tuncel
Subject(s): Social Philosophy, 19th Century Philosophy, Psychoanalysis
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Question; aggressivity; Nietzsche; pyschoanalysis;
Summary/Abstract: The subject of aggressivity has had a lukewarm reception in psychoanalysis starting with Freud who acknowledged the existence of death drive and aggressivity associated with it only in his late works, starting with Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Freud, 1990). Freud gives his own reasons as to why accepting the presence of aggression in the human soul and culture is difficult, especially in his Civilization and its Discontent (Freud, 1961).It should be noted here that thinkers have had difficulty facing the truth of aggression—therefore, Freud in his early resistance was not an exception but rather a norm--and it was only with Marquis de Sade and Nietzsche that we start seeing a reversal in this fundamental area of human life and society. In this article, I will not address the way De Sade deals with the problem, but rather start with Nietzsche’s ideas and then move on to Alfred Adler and Sigmund Freud. The main point I would like to make here is that aggression is a fundamental trait in human character and soul and, if we are to address the problem of violence, we need to accept this existential fact and find ways to channel aggressive drives and inclinations into those cultural formations and practices, which enhance human life rather than diminish it. This is a point with which these three thinkers would agree with.

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