This article addresses a very old and crucial debate in psychoanalytic theory and literature, that of the death drive. This debate has philosophical aspects as well as those concerned with interpretations of clinical material, which may dictate clinical interventions.

In the current article, I approach this fundamental topic from several directions, using short arguments from four different perspectives: A) A biological point of view; B) Using Green's concept of ‘The Work of the Negative’ creating a new concept of what I call a ‘bypass’; C) An economical state of affairs, meaning an energetically oriented perspective; and D) Internal versus external forces as a logical incongruence in Freud's death drive theory. Finally, I try to provide an alternative explanation of those ambiguous behaviors of self-impingement, thought to be related to the death drive.