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death drive. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
Calque of German Todestrieb.
Noun
death drive (plural death drives)
- (psychoanalysis) The drive toward death and self-destruction.
- Synonyms: death instinct, Thanatos
1989, Slavoj Žižek, Ernesto Laclau, The Sublime Object of Ideology, Verso, →ISBN, page 131:The connection between the death drive and the symbolic order is a constant with Lacan, but we can differentiate the various stages of his teaching precisely by reference to the different modes of articulation of the death drive and the signifier: […]
Translations
drive toward death and self-destruction
Further reading