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According to Sigmund Freud, humans have a life instinct—which he named "Eros"—and a death drive, which is commonly called (though not by Freud himself) "Thanatos". This postulated death drive allegedly compels humans to engage in risky and self-destructive acts that could lead to their own death. Behaviors such as thrill-seeking and ...
The death drive is sometimes referred to as Thanatos in post-Freudian thought (in reference to the Greek personification of death), complementing "Eros", although this term was not used in Freud's own work, being rather introduced by Wilhelm Stekel in 1909 and then by Paul Federn in the present context.
The essay, marking Freud's major revision of his drive theory, elaborates on the struggle between two opposing drives. In the first few sections, Freud describes these as Eros, which produces creativity, harmony, sexual connection, reproduction, and self-preservation; and the "death drives" (what some call "Thanatos" [4]), which brings destruction, repetition, aggression, compulsion, and self ...
The ranges of instincts are in great numbers. Freud expressed them in two categories. One is Eros the self-preserving life instinct containing all erotic pleasures. While Eros is used for basic survival, the living instinct alone cannot explain all behavior according to Freud. [8] In contrast, Thanatos is the death instinct.
In the sixth chapter, Freud reviews the development of his concept of libido to explain why it must now be separated into two distinct instincts: the object-instinct of eros and the ego-instinct of thanatos. This 'new' concept of the death drive actually has a long developmental history in Freud's writings, including his investigations into ...
Since libido energy encompasses all instinctive impulses, Eros and Thanatos are regarded as fundamental forces of the id, [23] which co-operate despite their apparent incompatibility: The organism has the urge to 'synthetically' regenerate by integration of suitable molecules or energy into itself, for this purpose it must first deconstruct the ...
In psychology, a drive theory, theory of drives or drive doctrine [1] is a theory that attempts to analyze, classify or define the psychological drives. A drive is an instinctual need that has the power of driving the behavior of an individual; [2] an "excitatory state produced by a homeostatic disturbance".
Thanatology is the scientific study of death and the losses brought about as a result. It investigates the mechanisms and forensic aspects of death, such as bodily changes that accompany death and the postmortem period, as well as wider psychological and social aspects related to death. It is primarily an interdisciplinary study offered as a ...