Abstract

This study attempts to explain the meaning of the death instinct in the Freudian context. It further attempts to isolate the description of the instinct which agrees with Freud's psychoanalytic theory from the one based on the psychodynamics, refuted by Freud's later findings, and neglected or surpassed by subsequent Freudian scholars. ;Having determined the meaning of the instinct which is in line with psychoanalytic theory, this study discusses the implications of the presence of this form of the instinct at the basis of human motivation with regard to man's pleasures and desires, his relation to others, and to the outside world. ;The main findings are: that Lacan's interpretation is the one that most agrees with psychoanalytic theory, although it is an interpretation that differs in basic features from the meaning that Freud more often assigns to the instinct; that this second meaning of the death instinct implies characteristics of human motivation that differ radically from the ones given by Freud's cultural works. For, according to this meaning, man's desire contains a genuine self-transcendence towards others and the outside world with its ethical norms and regulations; whereas in Freud's cultural works man is depicted as desiring only his own pleasure, and tolerating others and the restrictions of civilization only out of necessity.