Difference between revisions of "Death drive"

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{{Top}}pulsion de mort]]''; [[German]]: ''[[Todestrieb{{Bottom}}
 
{{Top}}pulsion de mort]]''; [[German]]: ''[[Todestrieb{{Bottom}}
  
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====Sigmund Freud====
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==Death Drive and Freud ==
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====="Beyond the Pleasure Principle"=====
 
Although intimations of the concept of the [[death drive]] can be found early on in [[Freud]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]], it was only in ''[[Beyond the Pleasure Principle]]'' (1920) that the concept was fully articulated.
 
Although intimations of the concept of the [[death drive]] can be found early on in [[Freud]]'s [[Works of Sigmund Freud|work]], it was only in ''[[Beyond the Pleasure Principle]]'' (1920) that the concept was fully articulated.
  
−
In this work [[Freud]] established a fundamental opposition between [[life drive]]s (''[[eros]]''), conceived of as a tendency towards cohesion and unity, and the [[death drive]]s, which operate in the opposite direction, undoing connections and destroying things.
+
=====Life and Death Drives=====
−
 
+
In this work [[Freud]] established a fundamental opposition between [[death drive|life drive]]s (''[[eros]]''), conceived of as a tendency towards cohesion and unity, and the [[death drive]]s, which operate in the opposite direction, undoing connections and destroying things.
−
However, the [[life drive]]s and the [[death drive]]s are never found in a pure state, but always mixed/fused together in differing proportions.
 
−
 
 
−
Indeed, [[Freud]] argued that were it not for this fusion with [[erotism]], the [[death drive]] would elude our perception, since in itself it is [[death drive|silent]] (Freud, 193÷a
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
      The concept of the death drive was one of the most controversial concepts
 
−
 
 
−
introduced by Freud, and many of his disciples rejected it (regarding it as mere
 
−
 
 
−
poetry or as an unjustifiable incursion into metaphysics), but Freud continued
 
−
 
 
−
  to reaffirm the concept for the rest of his life. Of the non-Lacanian schools of
 
−
 
 
−
psychoanalytic theory, only          Kleinian psychoanalysis takes        the concept
 
−
 
 
−
seriously.
 
−
 
 
−
      Lacan follows Freud in reaffirming the concept of the death drive as central
 
−
 
 
−
  to psychoanalysis: 'to ignore the death instinct in his [Freud's] doctrine is to
 
−
 
 
−
misunderstand that doctrine entirely' (E, 301).
 
−
 
 
−
      In Lacan's first remarks on the death drive, in 1938, he describes it 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 (Lacan, 1938: 35). In 1946 he links the death drive to the suicidal
 
−
 
 
−
tendency of narcissism (Ec, 186). By linking the death drive with the pre-
 
−
 
 
−
oedipal phase and with narcissism, these early remarks would place the death
 
−
 
 
−
drive in what Lacan later comes to call the imaginary order.
 
−
 
 
−
      However, when Lacan begins to develop his concept of the three orders of
 
−
 
 
−
imaginary, symbolic and real, in the 1950s, he does not situate the death drive
 
−
 
 
−
  in the imaginary but in the symbolic. In the seminar of 1954-5, for example, he
 
−
 
 
−
  argues that the death drive is simply the fundamental tendency of the symbolic
 
−
 
 
−
order to produce REPETITION; 'The death instinct is only the mask of the
 
−
 
 
−
symbolic order' (S2, 326). This shift also marks a difference with Freud, for
 
−
 
 
−
whom the death drive was closely bound up with biology, representing the
 
−
 
 
−
fundamental tendency of every living thing to return to an inorganic state. By
 
−
 
 
−
situating the death drive firmly in the symbolic, Lacan articulates it with
 
−
 
 
−
culture rather than nature; he states that the death drive 'is not a question of
 
−
 
 
−
bjology' (E, 102), and must be distinguished from the biological instinct to
 
−
 
 
−
return to the inanimate (S7, 211-12).
 
−
 
 
−
      Another difference between Lacan's concept of the death drive and Freud's
 
−
 
 
−
emerges in 1964. Freud opposed the death drive to the sexual drives, but now
 
−
 
 
−
Lacan argues that the death drive is not a separate drive, but is in fact an aspect      -
 
−
 
 
−
of every DRIVE. 'The distinction between the life drive and the death drive is          -
 
−
 
 
−
  true in as much as it manifests two aspects of the drive' (gl 20). Hence
 
−
 
 
−
Lacan writes that 'every drive is virtually a death drive' (Ec, 844); because (i)
 
−
 
 
−
every drive pursues its own extinction, (ii) every drive involves the subject in
 
−
 
 
−
repetition, and (iii) every drive is          an attempt to go beyond the pleasure
 
−
 
 
−
principle, to the realm of exceSS JOUISSANCE where enjoyment is experienced
 
−
 
 
−
  as suffering.
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
== ''Pulsion de mort'' ==
 
−
In ''Beyond the Pleasure Principle'' (1920) Freud established a fundamental opposited between life and drives (eros), conceived of as a tendency towards cohesion and unity, and the death drives, which operate in the opposite direction, undoing connections and destroying things.  However the life drives and the death drives are never found in a pure state, but always mixed/fused together in differing proportions.  Indeed, Freud argued that were it not for this fusuion with rotism, the death drive would elude our perception, since in itself it is silent.<ref>Freud 1930a: Se XXI, 120</ref>
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
The concept of the death drive was one of the most controversial concepts introduced by Freud, and many of his disciplies rejected it, but Freud continued to reaffirm the concept for the rest of his life.
 
−
 
 
−
Lacan follows Freud in reaffirming the concept of the death drive as central to psychoanalysis.  "To ignore the death instinct in his [Freud's] doctrine is to misunderstand that doctrine entirely.'<ref> e 310</ref>
 
−
 
 
−
In Lacan's first remarks on the death drive, in 1938, he describes it 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.
 
−
 
 
−
In 1946 he links the death drive to the suicidal tendency of narcissism.
 
  
 +
However, the [[death drive|life drive]]s and the [[death drive]]s are never found in a pure state, but always mixed/fused together in differing proportions.
  
−
However when Lacan begins to develop his concept of the three orders, in the 1950s, he does not situate the death drive in the imaginary but in the symbolic.
+
=====Silent Death Drive=====
−
He argues that th death drive is simply the fundamental tendency of the symbolic order to produce [[repetition]].
+
Indeed, [[Freud]] argued that were it not for this fusion with [[death drive|erotism]], the [[death drive]] would elude our perception, since in itself it is [[death drive|silent]].<ref>{{F}} ''[[Civilization and Its Discontents]]'', 1930a. [[SE]] XXI, 59.</ref>
  
−
"the death instinct is only the mask of the symbolic order."<ref>s2 326</ref>
+
=====Controversy=====
 +
The concept of the [[death drive]] was one of the most controversial [[:category:concepts|concepts]] introduced by [[Freud]], and many of his disciples rejected it (regarding it as mere poetry or as an unjustifiable incursion into [[philosophy|metaphysics]]), but [[Freud]] continued to reaffirm the concept for the rest of his life.  
  
−
This shift also marks a difference with Freud, for whom the death drive was closely bound up with biiology, representing the fundamental tendency of every living thing to return to an inorganic state.
+
Of the [[school|non-Lacanian]] [[school]]s of [[psychoanalytic theory]], only [[Kleinian psychoanalysis]] takes the concept seriously.
  
−
by situating the death drive firmly in the symbolic Lacan articulates it with cultural rather than nature; he states that the death drive "is not a question of biology," and must be distinguished from the biological instinct to return to the inanimate.<ref>E 102; s7 211-12</ref>
+
====Jacques Lacan====
 +
=====Psychoanalysis=====
 +
[[Lacan]] follows [[Freud]] in reaffirming the concept of the [[death drive]] as central to [[psychoanalysis]]:
  
 +
<blockquote>"To ignore the death instinct in his [Freud's] doctrine is to misunderstand that doctrine entirely."<ref>{{E}} p. 301</ref>
  
−
Another difference between Lacan's concept of the death drive and Freud's emerges in 1964.
+
=====Nostalgia=====
 +
In [[Lacan]]'s first remarks on the [[death drive]], in 1938, he describes it as a [[nostalgia]] for a [[preoedipal|lost harmony]], a [[desire]] to [[return]] to the [[preoedipal|preoedipal fusion]] with the [[mother]]'s [[breast]], the [[castration|loss]] of which is marked on the [[psyche]] in the [[complex|weaning complex]].<ref>{{1938}} p. 35</ref>
  
−
Freud opposed the death drive to the sexual drives, but now Lacan argues that the death drive is not a separate drive, but is in fact an aspect of every drive.
+
=====Narcissism=====
−
Hence Lacan writes that "every drive is virutally a death drive" because every drive pursures its own extinction, involves the subject in repetition, and constitutes an attempt to go beyond the pleasure principle, to the realm of excss ''jouissance'' where enjoyment is experienced as suffering.
+
In 1946 he links the [[death drive]] to the [[narcissism|suicidal tendency]] of [[narcissism]].<ref>{{Ec}} p. 186</ref>.  
  
 +
By linking the [[death drive]] with the [[preoedipal phase]] and with [[narcissism]], these early remarks would place the [[death drive]] in what [[Lacan]] later comes to call the [[imaginary order]].
  
 +
=====Symbolic Order=====
 +
However, when [[Lacan]] begins to develop his concept of the [[order|three orders]] of [[imaginary]], [[symbolic]] and [[real]], in the 1950s, he does not situate the [[death drive]] in the [[imaginary]] but in the [[symbolic]].
  
−
(''[[Todestriebe]]'' or ''[[Thanatos]]'').
+
=====Repetition=====
−
The former is concerned with the creation of cohesion and unity; the latter with the undoing of connections and the destruction of unity.
+
In the [[seminar]] of 1954-5, for example, he argues that the [[death drive]] is simply the fundamental tendency of the [[symbolic order]] to produce [[repetition]]:
−
According to [[Freud]], the [[death drive]] exhibits the tendency of all living beings to return to an inorganic state.
 
−
All drives are regressive in that they seek to return to an earlier 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.
 
  
−
The theory of the death drive is, by Freud's own admission, speculative, and is grounded in the ddescriptions of the [[compulsion to repeat]].
+
<blockquote>"The [[death drive|death instinct]] is only the mask of the [[symbolic order]]."<ref>{{S2}} p. 326</ref>
−
The fact that Freucd describes the death drive as 'silent' makes it difficult to supply concrete clinical evidence for its existence and the notion remains controversal, even though Freud continues to uphold it in his very last writings.
 
−
Many post-Freudian analysts dismiss the notion of a death drive as mere speculation on Freud's part, but Klein adopts it whole-heartedly, regarding the tyranny of the early [[superego]] as it crushes the young child's [[ego]] as the first clinical manifestation of its power.
 
−
(The concept of the death drive was one of the most controversial concepts introduced by Freud, and many of his disciples rejected it, but Freud continued to reaffirm the concept for the rest of his life. Of the non-Lacanian schools of psychoanalytic theory, only Kleinian psychoanalysis takes the concept seriously.)
 
  
−
==Death Drive and Lacan==
+
=====Biological Instincts=====
−
[[Jacques Lacan]] (following Freud) reaffirms the concept of the [[death drive]] as central to [[psychoanalysis]]. 
+
This shift also marks a difference with [[Freud]], for whom the [[death drive]] was closely bound up with [[biology]], representing the fundamental tendency of every living thing to return to an inorganic state.  
−
[[Lacan]] wrote: "to ignore the death instinct in his [Freud's] doctrine is to misunderstand that doctrine entirely."<ref>E, 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>
+
By situating the [[death drive]] firmly in the [[symbolic]], [[Lacan]] articulates it with culture rather than [[nature]]; he states that the [[death drive]] "is not a question of bjology,"<ref>{{E}} p. 102</ref>, and must be distinguished from the [[biological]] [[instinct]] to return to the inanimate.<ref>{{S7}} p. 211-12</ref>
−
In 1946, [[Lacan]] associates the [[death drive]] with the [[suicide|suicidal tendency]] of [[narcissism]].<ref>Ec, 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]].
 
−
"The death instinct is only the mask of the symbolic order."<ref>S2, 326</ref>
 
  
−
==Death Drive and Biology==
+
=====Sexual Drives=====
−
For Freud, the [[death drive]] was closely bound up with [[biology]].
+
Another difference between [[Lacan]]'s concept of the [[death drive]] and [[Freud]]'s emerges in 1964.  
−
[[Lacan]] situates the [[death drive]] in the [[symbolic]].
 
−
[[Lacan]] articulates it with culture rather than nature.
 
−
[[Lacan]] states that the death drive "is not a question of biology."<ref>E, 102</ref>
 
−
The [[death drive]] is not the [[biology|biological]] [[instinct]] to return to the inanimate.<ref>S7, 211-12</ref>
 
  
−
==Death Drive and Drives==
+
[[Freud]] opposed the [[death drive]] to the [[sexual]] [[drive]]s, but now [[Lacan]] argues that the [[death drive]] is not a separate [[drive]], but is in fact an aspect of every [[drive]].  
−
Another difference between Lacan's concept of the death drive and Freud's emerges in 1964.
 
−
Freud opposed the death drive to the sexual drives.
 
−
[[Lacan]] rejects Freud's thesis of a duality of life and death drives.
 
−
[[Lacan]] argues that the [[death drive]] is an aspect of every [[drive]].
 
−
The [[death drive]] is an aspect of every [[drive]].
 
  
−
"The distinction between the life drive and the death drive is - true in as much as it manifests two aspects of the drive."<ref>gl 20</ref>
+
<blockquote>"The distinction between the [[death drive|life drive]] and the [[death drive]] is - true in as much as it manifests two aspects of the [[drive]]."<ref>{{S11}} p. 257</ref>  
  
−
[[Lacan]] writes that "every drive is virtually a death drive;"<ref>Ec, 844</ref> because
+
Hence [[Lacan]] writes that "every [[drive]] is virtually a [[death drive]]" because:
 
# every [[drive]] pursues its own extinction,  
 
# every [[drive]] pursues its own extinction,  
 
# every [[drive]] involves the subject in [[repetition]], and  
 
# 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.
+
# every [[drive]] is an attempt to go beyond the [[pleasure principle]], to the realm of [[excess]] ''[[jouissance]]'' where [[enjoyment]] is experienced as [[sadism|suffering]].<ref>{{Ec}} p. 844</ref>
−
 
 
−
The death drive strives, in Lacan's view, to go beyond the [[pleasure principle]] and to attain the painful joys of [[jouissance]].
 
  
−
==See Also==
+
====See Also====
 +
{{Also}}
 +
* [[Biology]]
 
* [[Death]]
 
* [[Death]]
 +
||
 
* [[Drive]]
 
* [[Drive]]
 +
* [[Imaginary]]
 +
||
 +
* [[Instinct]]
 +
* ''[[Jouissance]]''
 +
||
 +
* [[Kleinian psychoanalysis]]
 +
* [[Narcissism]]
 +
||
 +
* [[Nature]]
 +
* [[Pleasure principle]]
 +
||
 +
* [[Repetition]]
 +
* [[Symbolic]]
 +
{{Also}}
  
−
==Look Up==
+
====Slavoj Žižek====
−
<ref>3, 1, 64-5, 94, 135 Conversations.</ref>
+
More information about the [[death drive]] can be found at the following reference(s):
 +
* {{Z}} ''[[Books by Slavoj Žižek|Conversations]]''. pp. 3, 1, 64-5, 94, 135  
  
−
==References==
+
====References====
 
<references/>
 
<references/>
  
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[[Category:Terms]]
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[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
 
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
 
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
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[[Category:Concepts]]
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[[Category:Symbolic]]
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[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
 
 
[[Category:Real]]
 
[[Category:Real]]
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[[Category:Subject]]
 
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
 
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
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[[Category:Dictionary]]
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[[Category:Concepts]]
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[[Category:Terms]]
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 +
  
 
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Revision as of 09:22, 28 August 2006

French: pulsion de mort; German: Todestrieb

Sigmund Freud

"Beyond the Pleasure Principle"

Although intimations of the concept of the death drive can be found early on in Freud's work, it was only in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920) that the concept was fully articulated.

Life and Death Drives

In this work Freud established a fundamental opposition between life drives (eros), conceived of as a tendency towards cohesion and unity, and the death drives, which operate in the opposite direction, undoing connections and destroying things.

However, the life drives and the death drives are never found in a pure state, but always mixed/fused together in differing proportions.

Silent Death Drive

Indeed, Freud argued that were it not for this fusion with erotism, the death drive would elude our perception, since in itself it is silent.[1]

Controversy

The concept of the death drive was one of the most controversial concepts introduced by Freud, and many of his disciples rejected it (regarding it as mere poetry or as an unjustifiable incursion into metaphysics), but Freud continued to reaffirm the concept for the rest of his life.

Of the non-Lacanian schools of psychoanalytic theory, only Kleinian psychoanalysis takes the concept seriously.

Jacques Lacan

Psychoanalysis

Lacan follows Freud in reaffirming the concept of the death drive as central to psychoanalysis:

"To ignore the death instinct in his [Freud's] doctrine is to misunderstand that doctrine entirely."[2]

Nostalgia

In Lacan's first remarks on the death drive, in 1938, he describes it 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.[3]

Narcissism

In 1946 he links the death drive to the suicidal tendency of narcissism.[4].

By linking the death drive with the preoedipal phase and with narcissism, these early remarks would place the death drive in what Lacan later comes to call the imaginary order.

Symbolic Order

However, when Lacan begins to develop his concept of the three orders of imaginary, symbolic and real, in the 1950s, he does not situate the death drive in the imaginary but in the symbolic.

Repetition

In the seminar of 1954-5, for example, he argues that the death drive is simply the fundamental tendency of the symbolic order to produce repetition:

"The death instinct is only the mask of the symbolic order."[5]

Biological Instincts

This shift also marks a difference with Freud, for whom the death drive was closely bound up with biology, representing the fundamental tendency of every living thing to return to an inorganic state.

By situating the death drive firmly in the symbolic, Lacan articulates it with culture rather than nature; he states that the death drive "is not a question of bjology,"[6], and must be distinguished from the biological instinct to return to the inanimate.[7]

Sexual 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 drives, but now Lacan argues that the death drive is not a separate drive, but is in fact an aspect of every drive.

"The distinction between the life drive and the death drive is - true in as much as it manifests two aspects of the drive."[8]

Hence Lacan writes that "every drive is virtually a death drive" because:

  1. every drive pursues its own extinction,
  2. every drive involves the subject in repetition, and
  3. every drive is an attempt to go beyond the pleasure principle, to the realm of excess jouissance where enjoyment is experienced as suffering.[9]

See Also

|}

||

||

||

||

||

|}

Slavoj Žižek

More information about the death drive can be found at the following reference(s):

References

  1. ↑ Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents, 1930a. SE XXI, 59.
  2. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 301
  3. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Les complexes familiaux dans la formation de l'individu. Essai d'analyse d'une fonction en psychologie, Paris: Navarin, 1984 [1938]. p. 35
  4. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits. Paris: Seuil, 1966. p. 186
  5. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book II. The Ego in Freud's Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis, 1954-55. Trans. Sylvana Tomaselli. New York: Nortion; Cambridge: Cambridge Unviersity Press, 1988. p. 326
  6. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 102
  7. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book VII. The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, 1959-60. Trans. Dennis Porter. London: Routledge, 1992. p. 211-12
  8. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book XI. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, 1964. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1977. p. 257
  9. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits. Paris: Seuil, 1966. p. 844



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