This paper traces and argues for a return to metapsychology. It locates three pivotal moments in its history: Freudian drive theory, its Freudo-Marxist politicization, and Lacan's return to Freud, arguing that in these three periods drive theory shifts from a dualism of eros and death drive to what is termed an “absent monism” in Lacan, or drive circling around the loss of an object. The motivation for such a re-tracing is partly archeological —to excavate a neglected theoretical core of psychoanalysis — but also philosophical. The claim is that debates on metapsychology (a) are central the Freudian-project (b) provide new forms of dualism and monism and (c) illuminate questions concerning a “psychoanalytic politics” and the social implications of psychoanalytic theory. The idea is that by mapping the contours and stakes of such a return we lay the necessary groundwork for a revival of metapsychology while clearing up confusion around Freud's most difficult texts.