Laying the death drive to rest

Abstract

While respecting the ontological assumption of the unconscious, the author systematically critiques the concept of the death drive. It clashes with the dictates of contemporary biology, disrupting communication between disciplines. In clinical application, the death drive as metaphor demonstrates little utility. It also invites reductionism, risking oversimplification of extremely complex phenomena like aggression. Perhaps most importantly, the construct places the entire psychoanalytic project, already in an existential crisis, in peril. The author briefly introduces a complex alternative view of aggression, driven solely by eros but involving many complicated intrapsychic, interpersonal, and sociocultural factors. He suggests the death drive, however thoughtfully utilized, hinders the forward movement of psychoanalysis for reasons of consilience, incommensurability, clinical utility, cross-disciplinary communication, and political survival.

Key words:

• aggression
• eros
• cross-theoretical
• pluralism
• Freud
• Fairbairn
• pleasure principle
• drive

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alan Michael Karbelnig

Alan Michael Karbelnig PhD ABPP is in private practice in Pasadena, California, USA. He is senior faculty at, a member of, and a training and supervising analyst for the New Center for Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles, California, USA.