==Death Drive and Freud ==
The [[death drive]] ([[French|Fr]]. ''[[pulsion de mort]]'') is introduced by [[Sigmund Freud]] in In ''[[Beyond the Pleasure Principle]]'' (1920). ==Life and Death== [[Freud]] posits a basic opposition between the [[life drive]] (''[[Lebestriebe]]'' or ''[[Eros]]'') and the [[death drive]] (''[[Todestriebe]]'' or ''[[Thanatos]]''). The former is concerned with the creation of [[cohesion]] and [[unity]]; the latter with the undoing of connections and the destruction of [[unity]]. ==Freud's Death Drive== According to [[Freud]], the [[death drive]] exhibits the [[regressive]] tendency of all [[living]] [[being]]s to return to an (earlier) inorganic state (or to recover a [[lost]] [[object]]). (Initially inward-directed, the [[death drive]] first manifests its [[existence]] in the human tendency to self-destruction; as it subsequently turns to the outside world, it takes the form of [[aggressivity|aggressive]] or destructive [[behavior]].) ==Controversy== The theory of the [[death drive]] is grounded in the descriptions of the [[compulsion to repeat]]. The concept of the [[death drive]] was one of the most controversial concepts introduced by F[[reud]], and many of his disciples rejected it, but Freud continued to reaffirm the concept for the rest of his life. The theory of the [[death drive]] remains controversial (even though Freud continues to uphold it in his very last writings). Freud] describes the death drive as 'silent' ==Melanie Klein==Of the non-[[Lacanian]] [[schools]] of [[psychoanalytic theory]], only [[Kleinian psychoanalysis]] takes the concept seriously. Many [[post-Freudian]] [[analysts]] dismiss the notion of a [[death drive]] as mere speculation by [[Freud]], but [[Klein]] adopts it whole-heartedly, regarding the tyranny of the early [[superego]] as it crushes the [[child]]'s [[ego]] as introduces the first clinical manifestation of its [[power]]. ==Death Drive and Biology== There are differences between [[Lacan]]'s concept of the [[death drive]] and [[Freud]]'s. For [[Freud]], the [[death drive]] was closely bound up with [[biology]]. [[Lacan]] states that the [[death drive]] "is not a question of biology."<ref>{{E}} p.102</ref> [[Lacan]] articulates it with [[culture]] rather than [[nature]]. The [[death drive]] is not the [[biology|biological]] [[instinct]] to return to the inanimate.<ref>{S7}} p.211-12</ref> ==Death Drive and Drives== [[Freud]] opposed the [[death drive]] to the [[sexual]] [[drive]]s. [[Lacan]] rejects [[Freud]]'s thesis of a duality of [[life]] and [[death drive]]s. [[Lacan]] argues that the [[death drive]] is an aspect of every [[drive]]. [[Lacan]] argues that "every drive is virtually a death drive"<ref>{{Ec}} 844</ref> because: # every [[drive]] pursues its own extinction, # every [[drive]] involves the [[subject]] in [[repetition]], and # every [[drive]] is an attempt to go [[beyond the pleasure principle]], to the realm of excess [[jouissance]] where [[enjoyment]] is experienced as [[suffering]]. The [[death drive]] strives to go beyond the [[pleasure principle]] and to attain the painful joys of [[jouissance]]. ==See Also==* [[Death]]* [[Drive]] ==References==<references/><ref>3, 1, 64-5, 94, 135 Conversations.</ref> [[Category:Terms]][[Category:Psychoanalysis]][[Category:Concepts]][[Category:Freudian psychology]][[Category:Real]][[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
