Konrad Lorenz’s Hydraulic Model

Freud argued that if instinctive urges are bottled up, they will eventually
make the individual ill. They demand release and will find it in one way or
another as the unconscious mind works to direct the distribution of the individual’s
psychic energy.
Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) carried this notion a step beyond what Freud
had postulated, contending that inherent drives that are not released by external
means will explode spontaneously through some inherent releasing
mechanism. This theory, termed Lorenz’s hydraulic model, explains psychic
collapses in some people, particularly in those who are markedly repressed.
Erich Fromm (1900-1980) carried Freud’s notions about the repression
of innate drives one step beyond what Lorenz espoused. Fromm added a
moral dimension to what Freud and Lorenz asserted, by postulating that humans
develop character as a means of managing and controlling their innate
physiological and psychological needs. He brought the matter of free
will into his consideration of how to deal in a positive way with innate drives.
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