Instinct Theory Paper

Instinct theories talks about how humans are programmed to act violently in certain circumstances (Louw, Van Ede, & Louw, 1998). These theories believes that violence is an inherent characteristics of mankind and to explain this better it is necessary look at ethological theory of Korand Lorenz and psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud (Louw, Van Ede, & Louw, 1998). One of the most influential psychologist who has studied the concept of ethology as a key biological discipline was Konrad Lorenz (Brigandt, 2004).Konrad Lorenz was the son of an international orthopedic surgeon called Adolf Lorenz (Brigandt, 2004). It is however interesting to notice that Konrad Lorenz’s family were full of individuals who loved the medical profession and his dad also

This however indicates that animals will not hesitate to kill their own species in order to get food, water, territorial space and protection of their offspring (Louw, Van Ede, & Louw, 1998). Since aggression is an inherent behavior in animals, the degree of violence that humans direct to one another are unmatched and it cannot be compared with even the most dangerous animal (Louw, Van Ede, & Louw, 1998). He clarified by saying that humans ability to kill others is due to the fact that humans unlike animals don’t have any inhibit reason to stop killing one another (Louw, Van Ede, & Louw, 1998, p. 274). Konrad Lorenz gave an example by saying that a wolf can stop a battle by tossing itself around and exposing his jugular as a sign of giving up and as a signal to its opponent to stop attacking. Another philosopher who also talked about instinctive behavior was Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud believed that human behavior is controlled by two key instincts which is life drive and death drive (Louw, Van Ede, & Louw,