The life instinct
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8973386 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicola Abel‐Hirsch (Unit 13 Apollo Studios, Charlton Kings Road, London NW5 2SB, UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 91 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1055-1071 |
| Publication date | 2010-07-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1745-8315.2010.00304.x |
| PMID | 20955245 |
| OpenAlex | W2120029272 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 5 |
In psychoanalytic writing an oversimplified interpretation of Freud's concept of the life and death instincts sometimes colours the presentation. Roughly, there is an implication that the life instinct is 'good' and the death instinct 'bad'. Freud however is clear that: "Neither of these instincts is any less essential than the other; the phenomena of life arise from the concurrent or mutually opposing action of both"(1933b, p. 209). In this paper I look in detail at the characteristics of the life instinct as conceptualized by Freud, and draw on Bion's work 'on linking' to elaborate Freud's view that binding is the life instinct's key characteristic. I suggest that there are pathological forms of both the life and death instinct if defused (separated off) from the other, and I explore a pathological variation of the life instinct in which binding is without the negation, rest, limit or end provided by the 'opposing action' of the death instinct. I consider an instance of the kind that any analyst might meet clinically, in which an inhibited patient experiences severe anxiety that life-giving connections threaten to proliferate indiscriminately and to an overwhelming intensity and size
Action (physics · Biology · Epistemology · Instinct · Pleasure · Pleasure principle · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Relation (database · Neuroscience · Philosophy · Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,13 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2022 (12) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |