Abstract

ANDRADE, Arthur Kelles. What does Freud teach us about unconscious’s relation with death?. Rev. SBPH [online]. 2025, vol.28, n.spe1, e001.  Epub Sep 01, 2025. ISSN 1516-0858.  https://doi.org/10.57167/rev-sbph.2025.v28.esp.862.

This paper seeks to identify the main Freudian contributions to the relationship between the individual and their own death. This is a theoretical study based on the main works in which Freud addresses the issue of finitude. Several points were extracted from Freud, such as: death is not part of the unconscious, that is, man can imagine and symbolize the death of others, but not his own; the moment in which he feels death as possible is when someone dear to him dies or when he himself is ill; the association of death with silence, with the inability to describe it in words; and three possible attitudes of man in the face of his transience. The article also discusses how Freud dealt with his own mortality, starting with his cancer diagnosis. The paper offers important support for the practice of hospital psychologists in listening to the psychological suffering in the face of finitude, helping to understand the ways in which the individual deals with the imminence of death, whether his own or that of others.

Keywords : Freud; Sigmund; 1856-1939; Death; Psychoanalysis..

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