ABSTRACT
Aggression, hostility, strife, conflict, cruelty, sadism certainly all exist commonly and perhaps universally on the psychoanalytic couch, i.e., in fantasy, in dream. This chapter argues that aggressive behavior can be found in everyone as an actuality or a possibility. Aggression springs universally not only as a reaction to stress, but also from the outset as a song of life, an affirmation of oneself, a bedrock of energy to express life, and the strength to protect oneself against threats to one's life or life force. Man's most basic life process of harnessing energy in itself will always involve the hazard of working with volatile forces that, by their very nature, can easily flare into destructiveness even when one is searching sincerely to channel one's energy to creative life-serving efforts. The optimal mode of the human energy system is one that achieves interplay of positive and negative energy elements standing in equal or complementary balance to one another.
