Ethology and psychoanalysis

Ethology has sometimes been considered a distant, perhaps quaint discipline which on occasion has peripherally enriched psychoanalysis. In contrast to this, it is suggested that the evolution of ethology, which is barely seventy years old, has, to a remarkable extent, mirrored the development of psychoanalysis. A comparison is made between the classical instinct concept in psychoanalysis and the classical ethological concept of instinct; and a parallel between the fate of the concept in each discipline is drawn. It is further suggested that the dialectical relationship and complementary evolution between ethology and psychoanalysis stems from both disciplines having introduced into an explanatory model of human behavior an element that was innate, instinctual, genetic—in short, biological.