Motives are symbolically mediated intentions, not impulses acting behind subjectivity.

Evidence

Thus motivations are not impulses that operate from behind subjectivity but subjectively guiding, symbolically mediated, and reciprocally interrelated intentions. It is the task of metapsychology to demonstrate this normal case as the limiting case of a motivational structure that depends simultaneously on publicly communicated and repressed and privatized need interpretations. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 672

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explicitly contrasts Habermas’s definition of motivation against the drive-push model of classical psychoanalysis.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing whether this linguistic reinterpretation of drives survives later critiques from within psychoanalysis.
• XREF: connects to: Motives of action are linguistically interpreted needs, not unconscious impulses. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2682; Motives are freely constituted rather than psychologically forced.; Internal egalitarian motives track social identity, not fixed personality traits. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1925 (+9 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Motives of action are linguistically interpreted needs, not unconscious impulses. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2682; Motives are freely constituted rather than psychologically forced.; Internal egalitarian motives track social identity, not fixed personality traits. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1925 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Motives of action are linguistically interpreted needs, not unconscious impulses. #expands (0.92) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2682
• Norms work mainly through external sanctions, not internalized motivation #complicates (0.80) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 168