[Psychic self-activity: history and currently of a construct].

The psychic self-activity is a hypothetical construct meant to describe and explain the mental processes which are not entirely generated by environmental stimuli nor by the need of eliminating internal stimuli. It emphasizes the proactive behavior led by curiousity, the exploratory urge and the psychic drive increase. Initially conceived by philosophers and the intuitive psychologists, this construct tends to disentangle from that speculative past and to focus on the empirical research.