Death drive
top: Copy edit ▸ Presentation ▸ Line-wrapping control added to dashes.
| ← Previous revision | Revision as of 05:44, 19 April 2026 | ||
| Line 3: | Line 3: | ||
{{Use British English|date=July 2025}} |
{{Use British English|date=July 2025}} |
||
{{psychoanalysis}} |
{{psychoanalysis}} |
||
In classical [[psychoanalysis]], the '''death drive''' ({{langx|de|Todestrieb}}) is an aspect of [[libidinal energy]] that seeks "to lead organic life back into the inanimate state."Freud, ''On Metapsychology'' p. 380. For [[Sigmund Freud]], it "express[es] |
In classical [[psychoanalysis]], the '''death drive''' ({{langx|de|Todestrieb}}) is an aspect of [[libidinal energy]] that seeks "to lead organic life back into the inanimate state."Freud, ''On Metapsychology'' p. 380. For [[Sigmund Freud]], it "express[es] itself{{px2}}{{mdash}}{{hsp}}though probably only in part{{px2}}{{mdash}}{{hsp}}as a ''drive of destruction'' directed against the external world and other organisms",Freud, ''On Metapsychology'' p. 381. for example, in the behaviour of [[predation]]. It complements the [[Eros (concept)|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-destructive behavior|self-destructiveness]].Eric Berne, ''What Do You say After You Say Hello?'' (London, 1975) pp. 399–400. |
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-destructive behavior|self-destructiveness]].Eric Berne, ''What Do You say After You Say Hello?'' (London, 1975) pp. 399–400. |
||
