A term with a tortured history indeed. The root is
Latin, instinctus meaning to instigate or impel, with the implication that such
impulses are natural or innate. There are four general, distinguishable meanings
of the terms:
-
(a) an unlearned response characteristic of the
members of a given species,
-
(b) a tendency or disposition to respond in a
particular manner that is characteristic of a particular species,
-
(c) a complex, set of acts found within a given
species that emerges under specific stimulus conditions, and
-
(d) any of a number of unlearned, inherited
tendencies that are motivational forces behind complex human behaviors.
This sense, of course, is that expressed by
classical psychoanalysis.