Observations on Human Behaviour

Abstract

The term “behavior” immediately invokes Konrad Lorenz and his work. Although his considerable observations and the conclusions he drew from them were restricted to the animal kingdom, the psychiatrist sees immediately how much of the behaviour of man is also instinctual. A chain of behavioural actions is initiated by a desire and leads to its satisfaction. Such fulfilment does not come from conscious thought but from territorial acquisition, oral satiation, sexual conquest and aggression. Man, too, is largely governed by instinct.