Revista Brasileira de Psicanálise
Print version ISSN 0486-641X
Abstract
MAGDALENO JUNIOR, Ronis. The paradox of aggression in the bonds of the ego. Rev. bras. psicanál [online]. 2022, vol.56, n.2, pp.43-53. Epub Aug 19, 2024. ISSN 0486-641X. https://doi.org/10.5935/0486-641x.v56n2.04.
The concept of aggression is problematic in psychoanalysis. Its equalization with destructiveness creates theoretical and clinical problems. The author proposes a critical review of the construction of the concept in Freud’s work, and, starting from ethology, discusses aggression as an act of two stages. The first being for approximation and the second for distancing, which is the primary expression of the death drive, the tendency to disconnect and to cut away, resulting in the rupture of the relationship between human and nature towards the cultural and language grounded human nature. Aggression becomes, as a result of the place of the other, a potential for destructiveness or for human creativity, at the basis for the possible feeling of happiness in the bonds of the ego.
Keywords : aggression; ego; death drive; creativity; happiness.