Discussion of Lawrence J. Friedman's Article, From Gradiva to the Death Instinct

Dr. Friedman's interesting article traces the genesis of the concept of the death instinct in Freud's own psychological preoccupation. His thesis is: (a) that Freud arrived at the concept of the death instinct as a way of mastering his own anxiety about death, stimulated by his cancer—“Thus man overcomes death, which in thought he has acknowledged. No greater triumph of wish fulfillment is conceivable” (b) that the concept of the death instinct is a defense against guilt about aggression, the denial of destructive impulses in relation to his mother being characteristic of Freud and often reflected in his psychological formulations, (c) that the anxiety about his own death may have led to a regression with a reactivation of his original ambivalence towards his mother, thus necessitating the formation of the concept of the death instinct as a defense.

I should like to examine these contentions separately. It seems to me quite likely that Freud's anxiety about his own death, as well as his preoccupation with death in the broader context of the 1914-1918 war, was a contributory

factor in his wish to tackle the problem of life and death and the psychological meaning of death. Such a preoccupation, however, is not itself pathological; indeed, coming to terms with the finiteness of life in general and the idea of one's own personal death in particular seems to be a fundamental psychological task in middle age. Elliott Jaques, in a paper entitled “The Mid-life Crisis,”1 on the basis of his analysis of middle-aged patients and his study of the mid-life crisis in the life of artists, arrived at the conclusion that the basic problem of middle age is the acceptance of the idea of one's personal death. He also suggests that this task is particularly in the foreground in the creative artist, whose capacity to work breaks down if he cannot deal with this problem. When he can deal with it and come to terms with death, his work achieves a new richness and maturity. In my paper “The