PROGRESSIVE AND CONSERVATIVE ENERGY MODELS IN PSYCHOANALYTICAL INTERPRETATIONS OF CULTURE

abstract

This paper explores the connection between Freud's conservative (tension-reductive) instinctual theory and his cultural pessimism. Two alternative views are criticized (those of Herbert Marcuse and Norman O. Brown) which try to reconcile this instinctual conservatism with an optimistic social theory by means of radical reinterpretations of Freud's realtiy and pleasure principles, respectively. A non-conservative instinctual model is proposed which converts Freud's equilibrium theory into a progressive evolutionary theory with the help of a few elementary cybernetic concepts. This progressive model provides the basis for a revision of important parts of Freudian theory, a revision which supports an optimistic or progressive cultural theory.