Sigmund Freud was a remarkable researcher when it comes to the knowledge of the human mind, bringing up complex ideas about the elements that permeate human life. life drive e death drive .

The idea of drive

In Freud's theory, drive designates the psychic representation of stimuli that originate in the organism and reach the mind It is like an energetic impulse acting internally, so that it drives and shapes our actions. The resulting behavior is different from that generated by decisions, since this is internal and unconscious.

Contrary to what is popularly reported, drive does not necessarily designate equivalence to instinct. More so in Freudian work, where there are two specific terms to work out its meaning. While Instinkt shows a hereditary animal behavior, Trieb works the sense of drive walking on the irrepressible pressure.

In Freud's work, the work with the drives was seen with duality, so much so that it was divided into several strands. Over time, the initial premise was modified, generating a new look to the theory. With this, the duel between life drive Eros and the death drive Thanatos.

Differentiating life drive and death drive: Eros and Tânatos

Thus, in the field of what is psychoanalysis, drive is an idea that relates to an essentially unconscious internal force that drives human behavior toward certain ends. Two basic drives stand out in psychoanalytic theory:

• The pulse of life also known as Eros (the Greek god of Love, equivalent to some extent to the Romans' Cupid).

The pulse of life is the tendency of the human organism to seek satisfaction, survival, perpetuation. In a certain sense, it is sometimes remembered as a movement towards novelty and events. It is related to sexual desire, love, creativity and individual and collective development. It is related to a search for pleasure, joy, happiness.

• The death drive also known as Tânatos (in Greek mythology, the personification of death).

The death drive is the tendency of the human organism to seek to destroy, disappear or annihilate (itself or another person or thing). It is a tendency to "zero", to break with resistance, to break with the physical exercise of existing. This drive drives aggressive behavior, perversions (such as sadism and masochism) and self-destruction.

For Freud, these pulses of life and death, Eros and Tânatos, are not totally exclusive. They live in a tension and, at the same time, in a dynamic of equilibrium. The mental health of a subject depends largely on these two pulses.

For example, the death drive is not always negative: it can arouse some dose of aggressiveness to change certain situations.

Let's see more details and examples of these two drives.

Pulse of life

The pulse of life within Psychoanalysis speaks about the conservation of units and this tendency Basically, it is about preserving the life and existence of a living organism, so you create movements and mechanisms that help to move someone in choices that prioritize their safety.

From there, an idea of ligament is nurtured, so that smaller parts can be put together to form larger units. Besides forming these larger structures, the job is also to preserve them. To exemplify, think of cells that find favorable conditions, multiplying and creating a new body.

In short, the life drive aims to establish and handle forms of organization that help protect life. It is about being positively constant, so that a living being is directed toward preservation.

Examples of life drive

There are several everyday examples that can establish a practical concept of the life drive. All the time, we are looking for a way to survive, to grow and to do more in our actions and thoughts . this is greatly simplified when we look at it:

Survival

At first, we all maintain a routine of eating whenever the body requires it, or even without apparent need. The act of eating indicates the provision of sustenance so that we can stay alive. It is something instinctive, so that the body and mind go into decline if it is not attended to.

Multiplication / propagation

The act of producing, multiplying, and making things happen is a direct direction to take life. We need to make resources and activities that are important for the general maintenance of humanity grow in our reality. Examples are the act of working to be paid, exercising to be healthy, teaching to spread knowledge, among others.

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Sex

Sex is shown as the union of bodies in order to momentarily unite. Going further, it can also give rise to new life, multiplying and giving rise to new existence In this, besides the people involved, sex can start a process of creation, perpetuating life.

Death Pulse

Death drive indicates the complete reduction of the activities of a living being It is as if the tension is reduced to the point where a living creature reaches the state of inanimate and inorganic. The goal is to take the opposite path to growth, taking us back to our most primitive form of existence.

In his studies, Freud embraced the term used by psychoanalyst Barbara Low, the "Nirvana Principle". Simply put, this principle works on the exponential reduction of any excitation present in an individual. In Buddhism, Nirvana conceptualizes "the extinction of human desire" so that we reach stillness and perfect happiness.

The death drive shows ways for a living being to walk towards its end without external interference. In this way, it returns to its inorganic stage in its own way. In a poetically funereal way, what remains is the desire of each one to die in its own way.

Examples of Death Drive

The death drive can be found in many aspects of our lives, even in the simplest ones. This is because destruction in its forms is part of everything that is connected to life and needs an end For example, we see this in the following highlighted areas:

Feed

Food, of course, can be seen as a life-directed impulse, since it is our existential maintenance. However, for this to happen, we need to destroy the food and only then feed on it. There is an aggressive element here, counteracting the first impulse and becoming its counterpart.

Suicide

Ending one's own life is a clear sign of the human being's return to non-existence. Consciously or not, some individuals manage to counteract their life impulse and end their cycles. As said lines above, each one chooses the way to end his or her own life.

Longing

Remembering the past can be a painful exercise for those who have not let go of something or someone Without realizing it at first, the individual is hurting himself, unconsciously seeking a way to suffer. For example, a child seeks a picture of his dead mother to remember her, but will suffer from her absence.

The environment in which we live defines our constructive and destructive journey

When it comes to life drive and death drive It is quite common to overlook the environment in which we grew up. Through it we build a personal identity that distinguishes us from others. Not to mention that it also means building cultural plurality, so that we find elements that make our construction .

According to Psychoanalysis, it is the implication of the unconscious that ends up dividing an individual from his own identity in the world. That is, our inner part stipulates a limit of where we end and where the external world begins. With this, one can raise the question of which force, internal or external, initiated the action.

Because of that, Psychoanalysis works on the symptoms that the new reality brought up. Thanks to it, for example, we can better understand the ingredients of violence in the current times. Consequently, this understanding about life drive and death drive will help to understand the unconscious and the pulsional satisfaction.

Balance and overlap

The life drive and the death drive, among others, work in opposition to each other. When these destructive forces are directed outward, one of the drives aggressively expels that instance. In this, one's organism can keep itself protected or even release aggressive behaviors towards oneself and others .

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Read Also: Death Pulse: How to manage it in a healthy way

However, the moment one position subjugates the other, action is initiated, since there is no balance. For example, when suicide happens, the death drive eventually prevails over the life drive.

Final considerations about life drive and death drive

The pulse of life and the pulse of death designate natural drives to the edge of existence While the other leans towards preservation, the other takes the opposite path, in order to eradicate an existence. At every moment each one gives signs of taking control, from simple actions to determining events.

The environment in which we live contributes directly to the expansion of each of these instances, in such a way that they become reflections. For example, a depressed person without any perspective in life may feel that he has found his path through suicide. At the same time that we build our personal identity, we deal with our image collectively.

In order to better understand how your essence is built, enroll in our training course in Clinical Psychoanalysis, 100% distance learning. Besides identifying which points help you in your development, the classes provide self-knowledge, development, and social transformation. Life drive and death drive will be even more clarified, since you will understand both in a practical way .