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The title given to this discussion—a panel presented in June 2022—is something of a provocation: Thanatos: Is Freud's Concept Still Relevant? In fact, the human capacity for violent destruction has never been more evident. War, senseless murder, the despoiling of nature, the exploitation and degradation of human life—do we psychoanalysts have something relevant to say about this? Can we sort out our different ideas about the sources and meanings of this capacity for death, killing, and destruction?
Thanatos is a somewhat metaphysical concept that Freud introduced in the development of his idea of Todestrieb. I use the German word advisedly because its translation as either death drive or death instinct immediately raises questions about Freud's intended meaning. So simply unpacking the title of this discussion—Thanatos / death drive / death instinct—suggests lines of difference and debate about what Freud was up to and what use we analysts might now make of it. It is our intention
Sarah Ackerman, Training and Supervising Analyst, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute; Chair, Committee on Confidentiality, International Psychoanalytic Association; Co-chair, Psychoanalysis Study Group, an interdisciplinary faculty study group sponsored by the Leslie Center for the Humanities, Dartmouth College. Lynne Zeavin, Training and Supervising Analyst, and Chair of Curriculum, New York Psychoanalytic Institute. Derek Hook, Professor of Psychology and clinical supervisor, Duquesne University. David Lichtenstein, faculty, NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, IPTAR, the CUNY Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, and New School University. Mark Goldblatt, faculty, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute; Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry (part-time), Harvard Medical School; founding member, Boston Suicide Study Group.
Panel presented at meetings of the American Psychoanalytic Association, June 2022.
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