Abstract

AZEVEDO, Monia Karine  and  MELLO NETO, Gustavo Adolfo Ramos. The development of the concept of death drive of in Freud's work. Rev. Subj. [online]. 2015, vol.15, n.1, pp. 67-75. ISSN 2359-0769.

One of the most essential metapsychological issues in the Freudian work is the drive theory. Freud developed two theories - the first consisted of a division between the ego drives and sexual drives, while the second proposed the existence of a death drive which focused on decathexization, and a Life Drive, seeking investment and unification. Knowing that the second theory created foundations for a different understanding of aggression, sadism and masochism, and even psychopathology, this work aims to hypothesize about what led Freud to change his first drive theory, and, in this way, try to understand both the foundations that shaped the second drive theory and the theory itself. It is concluded that the development of the concept of narcissism , that unified the sexual and ego drives, the resumption of the principle of constancy, and the understanding of the existence of a repetition compulsion were the elements that led Freud to propose a new way of organizing drives. Moreover, one can think of personal experiences in which Freud went through that contributed to a change in his thinking, such as the Great War of 1914 to 1918, and the premature death of his daughter Sophie, which happened around 1920.

Keywords : drives; death drive; life drive; narcissism; repetition compulsion.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish | French     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )