A pulsão de morte como agente de transformação: novos caminhos em Freud

Abstract

In 1920, when Sigmund Freud introduced the second drive theory in his book “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” (1920/2010d), he triggered a major turning point in psychoanalysis with the emergence of the concept of the death drive. In the first phase of psychoanalytic theory, it was believed that clinical treatment could offer a definitive solution to the problem of civilizational malaise, for example, through the sublimation of the sexual drive. However, in a second phase—more specifically with the shift to the second drive theory—this "peaceful register" came to be seen as something unattainable (Birman, 2005). From this point on, a certain sense of tragicity began to permeate the Freudian thought, due to the impossibility of reconciling human psychic functioning—marked by a death drive that propels aggressive and destructive acts (Freud, 1930/2010e, p.55)—with civilization. The concept of the death drive, however, was later expanded and even reinterpreted by several of Freud’s followers, such as Jacques Lacan, Jean Laplanche, and André Green. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether, in light of the critiques and reformulations posed by these post-Freudian theorists regarding the concept of Thanatos, it is possible to develop a new paradigm that conceives the death drive as a pathway for the transformation of the individual’s psychic processes, based on its “de-objectalizing function” (Green, 1993/2009).