According to Gioia, Freud's ideas on the death instinct were based on three types of considerations: psychoanalytic, biologic, and epistemologic, and in this essay, he examines the psychoanalytic issues exclusively. Within the framework of psychoanalytic theory, the death instinct hypothesis can best be clarified by considering it within the evolution of drive theory, which is summarized. Among the psychoanalytic reasons which made it necessary for Freud to postulate his theory of the death instinct, two are fundamental: the origin of aggression (and therefore the nature of psychic conflict) and the repetition compulsion. Gioia emphasizes the internal contradictions which emerged from the theory of instinctual duality, life-death. These contradictions become more apparent and generalized when this theory is carefully analyzed in attempting to explain the concept of psychic conflict, regression, aggression, destructiveness, and repetition compulsion. The concept of instinctual duality seems unnecessary, particularly when alternative explanations are less contradictory and more clinically applicable.