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==Death Drive and Freud ==
The [[death drive]] ([[French|Fr]]. ''[[pulsion de mort]]'') is 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 [[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 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]]
The [[death drive]] ([[French|Fr]]. ''[[pulsion de mort]]'') is 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 [[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 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]]
