« Gibt es Triebe ?» Un débat de la science allemande avant 1905

We use to think it was Freud who distinguished the “drive” and the “instinct”. By reading the German psychiatrists and anthropologists of the nineteen century we come to know about a debate which aimed to define and to compare the drive (Trieb) and the instinct (Instinkt), it questions the existence of a sexual drive in childhood and assumes a link between the drive and experience. The various conceptualisations we present here emphasize a scientific background which has constrained Freud's thinking and that of his followers.