The Psychoanalytic Theory of Motivation

Abstract

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory offers the most general and well-known conception of the dynamics of motivation. This conception is so vast that it is meaningless to ask whether it is “correct” or “incorrect.” Rather, some aspects of the theory have been shown to have reasonable validity, other facets have no empirical support at all, and still other propositions are beyond empirical test. In this chapter Freud’s theory of motivation and subsequent modifications introduced by “ego psychologists” are presented. Conceptions devised by other theorists such as Adler, Jung, and Rank are ignored inasmuch as these have had less impact than Freud’s ideas and the motivational aspects of these theories are not as clearly formulated.