death drive

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

• death drive on Wikipedia.Wikipedia