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"Death instinct"
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Death and mastery
The first philosophers of the Frankfurt School famously turned to the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud to supplement their Marxist analyses of ideological subjectification. Since the collapse of their proposed \"marriage of Marx and Freud,\" psychology and social theory have grown apart to the impoverishment of both. Returning to this union, Benjamin Y. Fong reconstructs the psychoanalytic \"foundation stone\" of critical theory in an effort to once again think together the possibility of psychic and social transformation.
Drawing on the work of Hans Loewald and Jacques Lacan, Fong complicates the famous antagonism between Eros and the death drive in reference to a third term: the woefully undertheorized drive to mastery. Rejuvenating Freudian metapsychology through the lens of this pivotal concept, he then provides fresh perspective on Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse's critiques of psychic life under the influence of modern cultural and technological change. The result is a novel vision of critical theory that rearticulates the nature of subjection in late capitalism and renews an old project of resistance.
eBook
Alignment of the Starlings: Learning With Generative AI
I will argue that answers to normative questions concerning the place of generative AI in learning rest on answers to ontological questions regarding (1) precisely what is happening when a human ‘interacts’ with generative AI and (2) What is distinctive about organic learning as opposed to currently existing ‘machine learning’ (3) What is the relevant context within which we must understand this pedagogic encounter? In order to think clearly about the first of these questions, we are best served by turning to process philosophy to deploy a conception of ‘individuation’ that makes some sense of the human/AI event. In relation to the second question I argue that differences between organic and currently existing machine learning pertain, most importantly, to the question of ‘creativity’. Corporate generative AI is driven by entropic repetition—the death instinct to use Freud's formulation. This is antithetical to creativity in learning and results in profound pedagogic, and political, challenges. There is nothing, in principle, preventing the development of truly creative hybrid AI individuation, however (My position is firmly posthumanist). Rather, it is the location of AI development within the context of the business models of the capitalist extinction event that makes this an unlikely development. The latter's predictive, automating algorithms are inherently antithetical to the animate novelty we value (I have chosen to employ the, strictly descriptive, ‘capitalist extinction event’ to designate out time, and recommend it to others).
Journal Article
The compulsion to repeat: An introduction
The Repetition Compulsion has been the source of much controversy and perplexity. From it's clinical introduction in 1914 in Remembering, Repeating and Working Through to it's metapsychological elaboration in 1920 in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, it has occupied a central position in Freud's thinking. Especially in regard to his later work, it can be seen to be intrinsic to his final dual instinct theory, his theories of the Death Instinct, trauma, memory, binding and action and to the clinical challenges and theoretical changes that led to the formulation of his second topography. This paper will trace the evolution of the concept in Freud and in certain post-Freudian authors, especially Edward Bibring, Winnicott and Scarfone.
Journal Article
Freud's view of death and repetition as grounds of a Kleinian approach to narcissism: Implications for clinical practice
Central to a Kleinian view of the person and the analytic process is the notion that narcissism is mainly pathological, involving the denial of the object, of his existence as independent of oneself or of his having value. The author will argue that the study of how this view is grounded in Freud's thinking, especially his thinking on the death instinct, and particularly in his Beyond the Pleasure Principle, deepens the understanding of this Kleinian view and points to its complexity. Also, through this study what essentially characterizes Kleinian practice, distinguishing it from other kinds of analytic practice is highlighted and Freud's ongoing relevance and contribution to contemporary Kleinian practice is made apparent.
Journal Article
A bioethical perspective on the meanings behind a wish to hasten death: a meta-ethnographic review
Background
The expressions of a “wish to hasten death” or “wish to die” raise ethical concerns and challenges. These expressions are related to ethical principles intertwined within the field of medical ethics, particularly in end-of-life care. Although some reviews were conducted about this topic, none of them provides an in-depth analysis of the meanings behind the “wish to hasten death/die” based specifically on the ethical principles of autonomy, dignity, and vulnerability. The aim of this review is to understand if and how the meanings behind the “wish to hasten death/die” relate to and are interpreted in light of ethical principles in palliative care.
Methods
We conducted a meta-ethnographic review according to the PRISMA guidelines and aligned with Noblit and Hare’s framework. Searches were performed in three databases, Web of Science, PubMed, CINAHL, with no time restrictions. Original qualitative studies exploring the meanings given by patients, family caregivers and healthcare professionals in any context of palliative and end-of-life care were included. A narrative synthesis was undertaken. PROSPERO registration CRD42023360330.
Results
Out of 893 retrieved articles, 26 were included in the analysis, accounting for the meanings of a total of 2,398 participants. Several factors and meanings associated with the “wish to hasten death” and/or “wish to die” were identified and are mainly of a psychosocial and spiritual nature. The ethical principles of autonomy and dignity were the ones mostly associated with the “wish to hasten death”. Ethical principles were essentially inferred from the content of included articles, although not explicitly stated as bioethical principles.
Conclusions
This meta-ethnographic review shows a reduced number of qualitative studies on the “wish to hasten death” and/or “wish to die” explicitly stating ethical principles. This suggests a lack of bioethical reflection and reasoning in the empirical end-of-life literature and a lack of embedded ethics in clinical practice. There is a need for healthcare professionals to address these topics compassionately and ethically, taking into account the unique perspectives of patients and family members. More qualitative studies on the meanings behind a wish to hasten death, their ethical contours, ethical reasoning, and implications for clinical practice are needed.
Journal Article
The Unwelcome Child as a Dynamic Construct of the Terrorist Mind
Psychoanalytic discourse on the dynamics of the terrorist mindset has been challenged by the absence of clinical work with terrorists in the literature. This paper proposes Ferenczi’s concept of the unwelcome child as a dynamic construct of the terrorist mind. Unwelcome children have weak life instincts and correspondingly high death instincts. Clinical material from the analysis of an unwelcome child is presented which suggests that a sense of anomie and alienation from social ties may lead to a fundamentalist mind set which may potentially lead to a search for meaning in terrorist acts. The struggle between life and death instincts is demonstrated in the clinical material, with life instinct tipping the scales in this instance. Self-preservative survival instinct is proposed as the theoretical construct for life instinct in contrast to Freud’s libido theory. The unwelcome child represents an object relations theory of the death instinct. Unwelcome children are likely a widespread phenomenon with significant social consequences.
Journal Article
Death-bound subjectivity: Fanon’s zone of nonbeing and the Lacanian death drive
Is there a distinctive form of political agency that emerges from the conditions of ‘death-bound subjectivity’? Fanon’s idea of the zone of nonbeing suggests that this is indeed the case. Yet there is an omission in the secondary literature on Fanon in this respect. While a renowned Fanon scholar like Lewis Gordon usefully explores how the zone can be understood as domain of ontological erasure, he typically fails to elaborate on the revolutionary potential of the concept. The nature of the psychical processes underlying this passage to revolutionary agency remains unclear. Of such agency we might ask: what is the animating factor that underlies, that drives the passionate attachment to such death-bound causes? Lacan’s reconceptualization of the death drive as ethical cause—which, to be sure, represents a dramatic departure from the original Freudian conceptualization of a ‘death instinct’—is presented here as a useful auxiliary concept to Fanon’s zone of nonbeing. With speculative reference to the ethical dimension of the Lacanian death drive as a mode of surplus life which both underlies an unceasing fidelity to a cause and delivers the subject to a zone between life and death, we are able to offer an account of the agency of radical negativity that the zone of nonbeing engenders.
Journal Article
Lifelong versus not lifelong death wishes in older adults without severe illness: a cross-sectional survey
Background
Some older adults with a persistent death wish without being severely ill report having had a death wish their whole lives (lifelong persistent death wish; L-PDW). Differentiating them from older adults without severe illness who developed a death wish later in life (persistent death wish, not lifelong; NL-PDW) can be relevant for the provision of adequate help and support. This study aims to gain insight into the characteristics, experiences, and needs of older adults with a L-PDW versus older adults with a NL-PDW and into the nature of their death wishes.
Methods
In the Netherlands, in April 2019, a cross-sectional survey study was conducted among a large representative sample of 32,477 citizens aged 55 years and older. Respondents with a L-PDW (
N
= 50) were compared with respondents with a NL-PDW (
N
= 217) using descriptive statistics, Kruskal–Wallis tests, and Fisher’s exact tests.
Results
Respondents with a L-PDW were relatively younger and less often had (step)children. They less often looked back on a good and satisfying life with many good memories and more often reported trauma. Older adults with a NL-PDW more often reported loss and bereavement. Overall, the groups showed a lot of similarities. Both groups reported a death wish diverse in nature, numerous health problems, and a variety of needs for help and support.
Conclusions
Some of the differences we found between the groups might be particularly relevant for the provision of adequate help and support to older adults with a L-PDW (i.e., their past and trauma) and to older adults with a NL-PDW (i.e., their loss and bereavement). The heterogeneity of both groups and the diverse nature of their death wish indicate that careful assessment of the death wish, its background, and underlying needs is required to provide personalized help and support to older adults with a death wish.
Journal Article
Death Instinct and Mental Conflict in Sabina Spielrein’s Early Work (1911–1912)
Over a period of twenty years, Sabina Spielrein developed an extensive and original psychoanalytic theory, which makes her deserving of a place alongside the great thinkers of psychoanalysis. Although in recent decades, there has been growing recognition of her life and work, the importance of her theoretical contributions (Spielrein, 2019a [1911], 2019b [1912], 2015 [1922], 2019c [1923], 2019d [1923]), her influence on later psychoanalytic thought and the role she played in the history of psychoanalysis have not yet been fully elucidated. The objective of this paper is to present and discuss some Spielrein’s main hypotheses in her first two publications, “On the Psychological Content of a Case of Schizophrenia” (2019a [1911]) and “Destruction as the Cause of Becoming” (2019b [1912]). Through theoretical and conceptual analysis, I argue that she developed an original view of mental dynamics and mental conflict, particularly in her claim that the death instinct and the species-psyche are the foundation of all psychic processes.
Journal Article