Dictionary.com
definitions

life instinct

noun
  1. See under death instinct.

Origin of life instinct

First recorded in 1905–10

death instinct

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).

Origin of death instinct

First recorded in 1915–20
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for life instinct

Historical Examples of life instinct

British Dictionary definitions for life instinct

life instinct

noun
  1. psychoanal the instinct for reproduction and self-preservation
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
life instinct in Medicine

life instinct

n.
  1. In psychoanalytic theory, the instinct of self-preservation and sexual procreation.

death instinct

n.
  1. A primitive impulse for destruction, decay, and death, manifested by a turning away from pleasure, postulated by Sigmund Freud as coexisting with and opposing the life instinct.Thanatos
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.