Natureza humana
ISSN 1517-2430
BOCCHI, Josiane C. CAMPOS, Érico Bruno Viana. Death, narcissism and invisibility in borderline states: a clinical study. Nat. hum. []. 2018, 20, 1, pp.115-133. ISSN 1517-2430.
The death drive concept is one of the most polemic and complex of Freudian metapsychology, with a variety of developments in psychoanalytic traditions. Although in different ways, both English and French tradition insist on a more traumatic and positive outlook of the disruptive effects of death drive. However, the contemporary clinic points to subjective configurations in which the bond with objects and reality are characterized more by the work of the negative, in which object and narcissistic disinvestment are the tonic. This position is illustrated by the report of a clinical case of a borderline marked by deadly scopophilia, depressivity and self-mutilation, in which the implication of the body and the oscillation between the ego and the ideal of ego stand out. It is concluded that the notion of negative narcissism constitutes an important operator for understanding the unfolding of the death instinct in the dynamics of contemporary subjectivity.
: psychoanalysis; contemporary clinic; death drive; negative narcissism.