Aggression: destructive impulse or life force

Authors

  • Louise Fréchette

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30820/0743-4804-2025-35-121

Keywords:

aggression, destruction, attunement, transformation, bioenergetic strategies

Abstract

The first part of this article retraces the evolution of the concept of aggression from the Freudian understanding of that primary impulse to the contemporary analytical authors, as well as to the Reichian and the Lowenian view of it. In a second part, it presents how today’s bioenergetic therapists conceptualize the aggressive impulse and how they work with it in their clinical practice, so that they can help their patients transform what can be a destructive force into a life force sustaining self-expression and self-actualization.

Author Biography

Louise Fréchette

Louise Fréchette is a psychologist, a certified bioenergetic therapist and an IIBA Faculty member. She has been in private practice in Montreal since 1980, and since 1987 she has been doing bioenergetic training in various countries like Canada, the United States, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, and New Zealand. She is the author of several articles in professional publications like the IIBA Clinical Journal and Le Corps et l’Analyse, a clinical journal published by the francophone Bioenergetic Societies. She is also the author of numerous documents for didactic purposes.
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How to Cite

Fréchette, L. (2025). Aggression: destructive impulse or life force. Bioenergetic Analysis, 35(1), 121–142. https://doi.org/10.30820/0743-4804-2025-35-121

Issue

Vol. 35 No. 1 (2025)

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license allows private use and unmodified distribution, but prohibits editing and commercial use (further information can be found at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). The terms of the Creative Commons licence only apply to the original material. The reuse of material from other sources (marked with a reference) such as charts, illustrations, photos and text extracts may require further permission for use from the respective copyrights holder.