A definite progression can be recognized in his concept of the instinctual drives, represented in the id, from the reflex arc scheme of a self-contained closed system, unrelated to the outer world (1915), toward a more modern biological view of instinct as "a tendency innate in living organic matter impelling it towards the reinstatement of an earlier condition, one which it had to abandon under the influence of external disturbing forces" [emphasis added]; i.e., instincts are influenced by and interact with life experiences (1920). ...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate