death instinct

American  

noun

1. suicidal tendency or inclination; predisposition to self-destruction.

2. Psychoanalysis. an impulse to withdraw or destroy, working in opposition to forces urging survival and creation life instinct.

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Etymology

Origin of death instinct

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

He is more allied with his death instincts than his life instincts.

From Salon

When I was younger, I was really into Freud, and the entry point for me was an interest in what he calls “the death instinct.”

From Los Angeles Times

A cult is really about the death instinct.

From Salon

It was Freud who posited the Nirvana principle as an innate psychic drive or death instinct that aims to end life’s inevitable tension.

From The Guardian

There is eros, the erotic, desirous, and dynamic half of our nature, and then there is thanatos, the “death instinct”—a lethargy that pulls us toward numbness, quietness, and repetition.

From The New Yorker