Aggression is the quintessential basis for all sociopathic behavior, and a primary concern in the fields of behavioral, developmental, social, and clinical psychology, and is covered to some extent in nearly every other field of psychology. Yet aggression is also necessary for human beings as a way to protect one’s individuality, to enhance one’s social standing, and often to protect oneself from bodily harm—all purposes very important to the maintenance of one’s mental health also. It is therefore a complex phenomenon and, depending on the context, the term aggression can be made to carry positive or negative connotations. It can manifest itself in the form of a behavior that may be self-protective and self-assertive, become more active with the result being injury to others, or passively wrought to the infliction of harm unto oneself. Whether or not aggression is biologically determined, the product of environmental influences, or simply a learned behavior is a slippery-slope argument that can neither be debunked nor proved at the current stage of psychological and medical research. These considerations go beyond the scope of this paper, and therefore will not be discussed. On the other hand, the application, through comparison and contrast, of the psychodynamic theories to issues of human aggression can provide some moderately satisfactory models of this phenomenon, in spite of the uncertainty as to the scientific origins of aggression. In particular, the psychoanalytic model of Freud and the analytical psychology of Jung are an excellent basis by which to elucidate some origins of human aggression.The Psychodynamic TheoriesThe constructs devised by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung are the most notable of the psychodynamic theories, and therefore the tools best suited to dissect the anatomy of human aggressive tendencies. Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, would have described aggression in terms of the Ego, Su...
