On Aggression
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On Aggression is a book by ethologist Konrad Lorenz on instinctual aggression in animals and humans.
According to Lorenz, animals, particularly males, are biologically programmed to fight over resources. This behavior must be considered part of natural selection, as aggression leading to death or serious injury may eventually lead to extinction unless it has such a role.
Lorenz negated the categorization of aggression as "contrary" to "positive" instincts like love, rather depicting it as a basis of other instincts and its role in animal communication. The book addresses aggressive behavior in humans, including discussion of a hydraulic model of emotional or instinctive pressures and their release, shared by Freud, and the abnormality of intraspecies violence and killing.
[edit] See also
- Aggression
- Robert Ardrey, author of African Genesis, The Territorial Imperative, The Social Contract, and The Hunting Hypothesis.
- Evolution
- Group selection
- Hunting hypothesis
- Killer ape theory
- Psychoanalytic theory
[edit] References
- Lorenz, Konrad (1963). Das sogenannte Böse. Wien: Borotha-Schoeler. (German original edition). ISBN 3-423-01000-2 (DTV edition 1974)
- Lorenz, Konrad (1974, c1966). On aggression. a harvest edt. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich - XIV, 306 pages. ISBN 0-15-668741-0 (A Helen and Kurt Wolff book)
