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Death drive
In classical psychoanalysis, the death drive (German: Todestrieb) is an aspect of libidinal energy that seeks "to lead organic life back into the inanimate state." For Sigmund Freud, it "express[es] itself—though probably only in part—as a drive of destruction directed against the external world and other organisms", for example, in the behaviour of predation. It complements the life drive, which encompasses self-preservation and reproduction behaviours such as nutrition and sexuality. Both aspects of libido form the common basis of Freud's dual drive theory.
The death drive is not only expressed through instinctive aggression, such as hunting for nourishment, but also through pathological behaviour such as repetition compulsion and self-destructiveness.
Freud proposed the concept of the death and life drives in his work Beyond the Pleasure Principle in 1920. It was developed to solve problems arising from the distinction between the pleasure principle of the id and the reality principle of the ego, with which he was still unable to explain seemingly meaningless or even self-destructive phenomena like recurring dreams of veterans that constantly remind of their war injuries. Freud also proposes that redirection of the death instinct outwards is the source of aggression.
The death drive forms an important part of Freud's psychoanalytic theory, being one of the two fundamental drives that influence behaviour. It is a controversial aspect of Freud's theory, with many later analysts modifying it or outright rejecting it. Later analysts who have accepted the concept have created the concept of mortido and destrudo to provide an analogous term to Eros's libido.
Three major terms are used to refer to the same Freudian concept: death drive, death instinct, and Thanatos.
Death drive and death instinct both originate from varying translations of the German words Instinkt (instinct) and Trieb (drive). While Freud typically used the word Trieb when referring to the death drive, the Standard Edition of Freud uses the word "instinct" for both Instinkt and Trieb. Death instinct and death drive are typically synonymous.
The term Thanatos was coined by Wilhelm Stekel and its use was advocated by Paul Federn. The term is never found in Freud's written works, but according to biographer Ernest Jones, Freud occasionally used the term in conversation when referring to the death drive. The term is a reference to the personification of death from Greek myth, Thanatos, who is used to provide an opposite to the mythological term used to refer to the life drive, Eros. Thanatos is also typically synonymous with death drive.
Freud arrived at the concept of the death instinct through these observations of repetition compulsion—the tendency of people who have undergone traumatic events to return to their painful experience repeatedly, often in dreams, and children's play. He found the phenomenon of people involuntarily subjecting themselves to disturbing stimuli would be irreconcilable with the pleasure principle (the idea that the mind works to lessen tension within it). While maintaining his theory of the pleasure principle and its regulation by the reality principle, Freud introduced the concept of the death instinct in his 1920 work Beyond the Pleasure Principle. He cites Sabina Spielrein and her paper "Destruction as the Cause of Coming into Being" as a predecessor for his line of thinking. In this work, Freud claims that repetition compulsion has a highly instinctual characteristic and gives the appearance of a "daemonic force at work". From there, he argues that another instinct beside the pleasure principle must be responsible for the phenomena. He claims that all instincts are "an urge inherent in organic life to restore an earlier state of things", and since the earliest state instinct could restore in the state preceding life itself, there must be an instinct that aims to return oneself into inorganic non-existence. He claims that this instinct is used to provide mastery over unpleasant experiences by repeating them in play and dreams. In The Ego and the Id, he states that the death instinct forms a duality within the id alongside Eros. Freud also predicated his notion of the death drive on the "nirvana principle": the fundamental tendency to aim toward reducing all instinctual tension to zero, that is, non-existence.
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Death drive
In classical psychoanalysis, the death drive (German: Todestrieb) is an aspect of libidinal energy that seeks "to lead organic life back into the inanimate state." For Sigmund Freud, it "express[es] itself—though probably only in part—as a drive of destruction directed against the external world and other organisms", for example, in the behaviour of predation. It complements the life drive, which encompasses self-preservation and reproduction behaviours such as nutrition and sexuality. Both aspects of libido form the common basis of Freud's dual drive theory.
The death drive is not only expressed through instinctive aggression, such as hunting for nourishment, but also through pathological behaviour such as repetition compulsion and self-destructiveness.
Freud proposed the concept of the death and life drives in his work Beyond the Pleasure Principle in 1920. It was developed to solve problems arising from the distinction between the pleasure principle of the id and the reality principle of the ego, with which he was still unable to explain seemingly meaningless or even self-destructive phenomena like recurring dreams of veterans that constantly remind of their war injuries. Freud also proposes that redirection of the death instinct outwards is the source of aggression.
The death drive forms an important part of Freud's psychoanalytic theory, being one of the two fundamental drives that influence behaviour. It is a controversial aspect of Freud's theory, with many later analysts modifying it or outright rejecting it. Later analysts who have accepted the concept have created the concept of mortido and destrudo to provide an analogous term to Eros's libido.
Three major terms are used to refer to the same Freudian concept: death drive, death instinct, and Thanatos.
Death drive and death instinct both originate from varying translations of the German words Instinkt (instinct) and Trieb (drive). While Freud typically used the word Trieb when referring to the death drive, the Standard Edition of Freud uses the word "instinct" for both Instinkt and Trieb. Death instinct and death drive are typically synonymous.
The term Thanatos was coined by Wilhelm Stekel and its use was advocated by Paul Federn. The term is never found in Freud's written works, but according to biographer Ernest Jones, Freud occasionally used the term in conversation when referring to the death drive. The term is a reference to the personification of death from Greek myth, Thanatos, who is used to provide an opposite to the mythological term used to refer to the life drive, Eros. Thanatos is also typically synonymous with death drive.
Freud arrived at the concept of the death instinct through these observations of repetition compulsion—the tendency of people who have undergone traumatic events to return to their painful experience repeatedly, often in dreams, and children's play. He found the phenomenon of people involuntarily subjecting themselves to disturbing stimuli would be irreconcilable with the pleasure principle (the idea that the mind works to lessen tension within it). While maintaining his theory of the pleasure principle and its regulation by the reality principle, Freud introduced the concept of the death instinct in his 1920 work Beyond the Pleasure Principle. He cites Sabina Spielrein and her paper "Destruction as the Cause of Coming into Being" as a predecessor for his line of thinking. In this work, Freud claims that repetition compulsion has a highly instinctual characteristic and gives the appearance of a "daemonic force at work". From there, he argues that another instinct beside the pleasure principle must be responsible for the phenomena. He claims that all instincts are "an urge inherent in organic life to restore an earlier state of things", and since the earliest state instinct could restore in the state preceding life itself, there must be an instinct that aims to return oneself into inorganic non-existence. He claims that this instinct is used to provide mastery over unpleasant experiences by repeating them in play and dreams. In The Ego and the Id, he states that the death instinct forms a duality within the id alongside Eros. Freud also predicated his notion of the death drive on the "nirvana principle": the fundamental tendency to aim toward reducing all instinctual tension to zero, that is, non-existence.