psychic determinism

n. The theory that all behavior, thoughts, and emotions have some (often unconscious) meaning or reason for being; nothing is accidental or random. Psychic determinism is one of the central components of a psychoanalytic approach to human behavior. From this starting point every detail in human life, both large (e.g., choice of job, choice of partner, moral and political views) and small (e.g., dreams, slips of the tongue, forgetting someone's name), results from some unconscious drive or desire and is never the result of random occurrences. From this perspective, because so much of human motivation (e.g., hostile, aggressive, or sexual urges) is thought to be outside awareness, very few decisions in life are made with a truly rational conscious free will. Therefore, behavior is determined by one's unconscious.  – DGa