ABSTRACT
Freud's thinking on the problems of psychic energy and cathexes followed as it were by deferred action from two observations: that what excites is cathected, and that the need may be satisfied, whereas this is not the case with the pressure stemming from the internal thrust of the desire. This means that there are movements which place the psychic apparatus under tension and which are the expression of an inner force, called a ‘drive’, itself resulting from the transformation of somatic excitations. 1 This tension and its consequences arise in relation to the exciting entity and to what is desired. Interaction and the relation with the object are therefore immediately involved. This force is also implicated in the work of psychic transformations in their manifold guises. The psyche is work because its operation is governed by the drives, on which it in turn labours since they are a constant charge and the mind cannot escape from them. It may try to rid itself of them or elaborate them by binding the excitations to representations, affects, objects in the external or internal world, and various experiences and situations.
