death drive

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English

Etymology

Calque of German Todestrieb.

Noun

death drive (plural death drives)

  1. (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: []

Further reading