The notion of repetition was present in Freud's work from the very earliest writings on, for example, the concepts of transference, fixation, and the return of the repressed. It was only in later works that repetition became a metapsychological concept. The concept of the compulsion to repeat unpleasant phenomena appeared in 1914 and was associated with acting out. Not until 1920 was the repetition compulsion mentioned as the product of a metapsychological speculation; it would be inappropriate to term it merely philosophic speculation. This concept is more in continuity than in discord with Freud's antecedent ideas. Furthermore, repetition compulsion, the death instinct, and the principle of Nirvana do not simply constitute reformulations of each other. The repetition compulsion is the characteristic of all drives, not only of the death instinct. This latter drive is well named, since it conduces to suffering and psychic disorganization; however, it is also in the service of object relations.