Introduction
Biological instinct is the innate, inherted fixed action patterns of responses or reactions to certain stimuli, both internal and external. These responses or reactions are intermittent and fairly predictable within a specific species. Freudian instinct differs from strictly biological instinct in the uniquely human experience of a consciousness of the pressure to respond, the sometimes consistent presence of such pressure with or without indentifiable stimulus, and the variation within the human species. Freud used the words Instinkt and Trieb (drive) to describe such instinctual pressure, often interchangeably.
Inconsistency about mind/body dualism is a core component in Freud’s writings about instinct. Freud feared monism would make psychoanalysis a religious or mystical discipline, and compromise its place in a scientific Weltanschauung. Biologically driven forces shaping humanity remain a problematic topic in religious thinking. The polarized debate between...
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Teitelbaum, S. (2010). Instinct. In: Leeming, D.A., Madden, K., Marlan, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-71802-6_332
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