TOWARDS A CLINICALLY AND EMPIRICALLY SOUND THEORY OF MOTIVATION

The author outlines a theory of motivation that attempts to integrate psychoanalytic theory with current psychological thinking and research . Er?lotions and other sensory feeling states are evolved mechanisms f or channelling behaviour in directions that foster adaptation. The avo idance of unpleasant states and pursuit of pleasant ones leads to goal -directed mental and behavioural processes, including defences and com promise formations. Affects provide a flexible motivational mechanism in humans, as they become associated with representations of perceived feared, wished-for, or otherwise valued states through the interactio n of environmental events and highly specific naturally-selected biolo gical proclivities. This reconceptualisation of motivation points towa rds a resolution of a contradiction in Freud's models of affect and mo tivation between a theory of drive-reduction and a theory of affect re gulation, and of the apparent contradiction between motivational model s that emphasise either sexual desire or relational needs. The model a lso has implications for the theory of transference, since it suggests that neutrality is not the feature of the analytic situation that evo kes meaningful transferential processes.