Psychoanalytic term referring to a fundamental motivational force, such as the life drive or death drive. Used in academic or clinical contexts.
Freud divided human drives into the life drive and the death drive.
Drive theory is one of the fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis.
Compound of 欲 (desire, want) and 動 (movement, action), likely coined as a translation of the psychoanalytic term 'drive' (German: Trieb).