Rethinking Freud's Death Instinct

Objective. - This article aims to reappraise the concept of the death instinct as an inherent element of Freudian thinking. It raises the question of the pre-Freudian origin of the concept and examines both its meta-psychological and its clinical status and relevance. The central question is how to make sense of Freud's death instinct, meta-psychologically and clinically. Method. - Starting from a footnote in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), this article develops a brief genealogy of the death instinct. This investigation reveals a much longer pre-Freudian 'history' than is usually assumed, and confronts us with a diverse range of (clinical) contexts for the origin of the concept. Re-reading Freud's Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920) and subsequent texts, the guiding question is: what was the specific clinical research context that led Freud to introduce the idea of the death instinct? Results. - This article recalls that, after Mourning and Melancholia (1916-1917), Freud was extremely preoccupied with the problem of melancholia. It is argued that this psychopathological model provides the meta-psychological research matrix that contextualizes Freud's introduction of the death instinct. At the same time, however, it is argued that Freud's seemingly marginal interest in epilepsy should be taken into account in order to apprehend the specific, instinctual nature of the death instinct. This is illustrated by a short clinical vignette. Discussion. - This article argues for the meta-psychological and clinical relevance of Freud's enigmatic concept of the death instinct from a return to Freud's writings and a focus on the specific pathological research models he uses. Conclusion. - By taking into account both melancholia and epilepsy it is possible to make sense of Freud's death instinct both meta-psychologically and clinically. (C) 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.