counterimpulse

plural counterimpulses

1. An impulse that runs counter to another impulse.

   This counterimpulse tends to embrace everything difficult and European with juvenile zeal.

   1988 November 11, Andrew Goodwin, “Reading: The Cultural Crash of '89”, in Chicago Reader

   2 more examples

   If the presence of a counterimpulse were sufficient to determine a mistake all of us should and would be constantly making mistakes.

   1921, Psyche and Eros

   In the conflict theory, there is an impulse or a motive, and an opposing counterimpulse or countermotive.

   1982, Introducing Psychoanalytic Theory, page 119