# death drive

Death drive is the [[psychoanalytic]] term used to describe a particular kind of self-destructive [[drive]]. It is a self-undermining motive. In contrast to the [[pleasure principle]], the death drive is about a constant self-undermining so as to continuously experience excitation. [[Freud]] came to believe that the pleasure principle is in service to the death drive.

[[Freud]] describes the death drive in _Beyond the Pleasure Principle_, noting that soldiers who had experienced some kind of trauma continued to relive their trauma.

[[Freud]] contrasts the death drive with the [[pleasure principle]].

> The aim of all life is death. — Sigmund Freud

[[Lacan]] believed that every drive was ultimately a death drive, and was intrinsically linked to the concept of [[jouissance]].