==Death Drive and Freud ==
The [[death drive]] ([[French]]: ''[[pulsion de mort]]'') is first elaborated introduced by [[Sigmund Freud]] 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 tendency of all living beings to return to an inorganic state.
All drives are According to [[Freud]], the [[death drive]] exhibits the [[regressive in that they seek ]] 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, by Freud's own admission, speculative, and is grounded in the ddescriptions of the [[compulsion to repeat]].
The fact that Freucd describes theory of the [[death drive as 'silent' makes it difficult to supply concrete clinical evidence for its existence and ]] is grounded in the descriptions of the notion remains controversal, even though Freud continues [[compulsion to uphold it in his very last writingsrepeat]].
Many post-Freudian analysts dismiss The concept of the notion of a [[death drive as mere speculation on Freud's part, but Klein adopts it whole-heartedly, regarding the tyranny ]] was one of the early most controversial concepts introduced by F[[superegoreud]] as , and many of his disciples rejected it crushes , but Freud continued to reaffirm the young child's [[ego]] as concept for the first clinical manifestation rest of its powerhis life.
(The concept theory of the [[death drive was one of the most ]] remains controversial concepts introduced by (even though Freud, and many of continues to uphold it in his disciples rejected it, but very last writings). Freud continued to reaffirm ] describes the concept for the rest of his life. 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 the first clinical manifestation of its [[power]].
==Death Drive and Lacan==
[[Jacques Lacan]] (following [[Freud]]) reaffirms the concept of the [[death drive]] as central to [[psychoanalysis]]. [[Lacan]] wrote: "to ignore the death instinct in his [Freud's] doctrine is to misunderstand that doctrine entirely."<ref>{{E, }} p.301</ref>
In 1938, [[Lacan]] describes the [[death drive]] as a [[nostalgia]] for a [[lost harmony]], a [[desire]] to [[return]] to the [[preoedipal]] fusion with the [[mother]]'s [[breast]], the [[loss]] of which is marked on the [[psyche]] in the [[weaning complex]].<ref>Lacan, 1938: 35</ref>
In 1946, [[Lacan]] associates the [[death drive]] with the [[suicide|suicidal tendency]] of [[narcissism]].<ref>{{Ec}} p.186</ref>
In the 1950s, [[Lacan]] does not situate the [[death drive]] in the [[imaginary]] (despite its association with the [[preoedipal phase]] and [[narcissism]]), but rather in the [[symbolic]].
In the 1954-5 seminar, ''[[The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis]]'', [[Lacan]] states that the [[death drive]] is simply the fundamental tendency of the [[symbolic]] [[order]] to produce [[repetition]].
<blockquote>"The [[death ]] [[instinct ]] is only the mask of the [[symbolic ]] [[order]]."<ref>{{S2}} p.326</ref></blockquote> [[Lacan]] situates the [[death drive]] in the [[symbolic]].
==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]] situates states that the [[death drive]] in the [[symbolic]]"is not a question of biology."<ref>{{E}} p.102</ref>
[[Lacan]] articulates it with [[culture ]] rather than nature. [[Lacannature]] states that the death drive "is not a question of biology."<ref>{{E}} p.102</ref>
The [[death drive]] is not the [[biology|biological]] [[instinct]] to return to the inanimate.<ref>{S7}} p.211-12</ref>
==Death Drive and Drives==
Another difference between [[Lacan]]'s concept of the [[death drive]] and [[Freud]]'s emerges in 1964.
[[Freud]] opposed the [[death drive]] to the [[sexual]] [[drive]]s.
[[Lacan]] argues that the [[death drive]] is an aspect of every [[drive]].
The [[death driveLacan]] argues that "every drive is an aspect of every [[virtually a death drive]]."<ref>{{Ec}} 844</ref> because:
# every [[drive]] pursues its own extinction,
"The distinction between the life # every [[drive and ]] involves the death drive is - true [[subject]] in as much as it manifests two aspects of the drive."<ref>gl 20</ref>[[repetition]], and
[[Lacan]] writes 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 [[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]].
The [[death drive]] strives, in [[Lacan]]'s view, to go beyond the [[pleasure principle]] and to attain the painful joys of [[jouissance]].
==See Also==
