The Ontological Grounds of the Death Instinct in Freud

The aim of this “paper” is to point out the significance of the concept of the death instinct in Freud's psychoanalytical theory. Moreover, it considers this concept of paramount importance for the whole Freudian theory, as opposed to the cautious attitude of the majority of the representatives of contemporary psychoanalysis. The viewpoint presented in this paper is that the above mentioned concept cannot be merely disregarded as a speculative concept which aims, in the best of cases, to organize certain empirical data stemming from clinical experience. In fact, the view put forward is that this concept is rooted in man's ontological structure. Therefore, it imparts to psychoanalytical theory a philosophical dignity which transcends its empirical formulations. However, it is pointed out that the theory of the death instinct, as it is expressed by Freud, is in need of being radically reformulated, since it is both scientifically and philosophically unacceptable insofar as it was presented by Freud in dubious biological basis. Certain contemporary phenomenological and existential concepts, along with Lacanian theory, are introduced in order to reformulate Freud's theory in terms of contemporary philosophical trends of thought, thus grounding Freud's brilliant psychological findings on ontological and phenomenological basis.