life instinct

British  

noun

1. psychoanal the instinct for reproduction and self-preservation

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Example Sentences

Later, Freud formulated his famed "death instinct," into which suicide fitted neatly as death's triumph over the life instinct.

From Time Magazine Archive

Gravity, organic life, instinct, human thought and affection, are forms of his influx manifesting itself in varying relations.

From The Elements of Character by Chandler, Mary G.

Not only did the life instinct cling to them, to the warm human hands and faces hemming him in and protecting him from that darkness beyond with its shapes of terror.

From Marcella by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

So far as she could judge, the qualities that she deemed necessary in the make-up of a robust life, instinct with purpose and accomplishment, seemed to be entirely lacking in Kennedy Square formulas.

From The Fortunes of Oliver Horn by Smith, Francis Hopkinson

The life instinct was fully awakened in him now, as the dread from which he had run became more distant.

From The Story of Ab A Tale of the Time of the Cave Man by Waterloo, Stanley