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Thanatos: Does it Exist?

National Health Service

This paper aims to explore the origin of one of the pillars of psychoanalytic thinking — that of the death instinct. My claim is that the concept of `thanatos' is an expression of Sigmund Freud's basic beliefs which were formed through his traumatic early and later life experiences. I also aim to illustrate that the logical foundation of the concept of thanatos is suspect and that for this reason it should be discarded. Drawing upon the contributions of Aristotle and David Hume we can arrive at a more realistic view of how an individual's perception of `self and other' develops. Group therapy can provide the new experience on which new beliefs will be formed and from which a new understanding of `self and other' can emerge. As this new edifice of beliefs and understandings will be based on the therapeutic and not the traumatic life experience, it will be closer to reality and represent a more accurate image of `self and other'.

Group Analysis, Vol. 27, No. 1, 37-49 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/0533316494271004


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