Freud, translator of instinct

Abstract

In this article, we aim to reopen the translational quarrel around the Freudian concept of Trieb. Firstly, we highlight extracts in which Freud, when citing Frazer, Trotter and Le Bon, translates the term “instinct” either by “Instinkt” or by “Trieb”, in an undifferentiated fashion. We also return to Freud’s translation of Bernheim’s books, in which he employs “Instinct” to translate the French “instinct”. In the second section of the article, we critically approach the translational option that is currently the most accepted in Brazil: “pulsão”. We sketch a brief history of this translational choice, considering that, while alive, Freud never opposed the use of “instinct”. The choice of “pulsion” (an archaism, obsolete for centuries) occurred firstly in France, but not exclusively for etymological or semantic reasons, for it was also part in a whole (antinaturalist) reinterpretation of Freudian theory. The term “pulsion” – in a certain way the lexical epicentre of this French rereading – has spread, becoming a real consolidated vision, tacitly accepted by most of Freud’s translators not only in France, but also in Brazil, Argentina, and Italy. By considering theoretically the status of Trieb in Freudian theory, and armed with the translational facts discussed in the first section of the article, we then criticise the use of “pulsão”.