Instinct-environment exchange drives ego development and sublimation capacity

Evidence

In his first article, he mentioned a `metabolic exchange’ between instinctual drives and the environment, leading to human beings as such being altered in a direction which implied above all an increase in ego-organization and a corresponding growth in the capacity for sublimation. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 485

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces Fromm’s early concept of a ‘metabolic exchange’ between drives and environment as the mechanism of character development.