Discussion of Melitta Sperling's Article, Migraine Headaches, Altered States of Consciousness and Accident Proneness: A Clinical Contribution to the Death Instinct Theory

Freud's death instinct theory has been so much maligned in the psychoanalytic literature that it seems justified to bring here some arguments in its favor.

From the theoretical point of view the assumption of the death instinct is desirable, because it connects psychoanalysis with physiology. Those who have not had any medical training are not paying enough attention to the fact that the psyche is a function of the brain. In the thinking of primitive man the mind and the body are different things. This dualistic view of the world, namely, mind and body as different substances, is still prevalent in most languages. It is not easy to overcome this habit of thinking and to realize that there is really only one substance (monism). In every single cell of the human body and in every animal or plant or microorganism, there are two processes going on all the time: The formation of larger molecules out of smaller ones (nutrition, growth) and the breaking up of large molecules into small ones. Life goes on in certain large molecules. The breaking up of these molecules is equivalent with death. It is Freud's concept that the psyche does not begin at a sudden with the species of man. Some predecessors of the psyche must have been present in the most primitive microorganism.

The theory of the death-instinct assumes that the most basic drives represent the psychological aspect of the most basic functions of any cell. The formation of larger units (anabolic processes) is represented

by the life instinct (Eros), the breaking up of the large molecules (catabolic processes) is represented by the death instinct.

Aggression is not encountered as a basic function of cells. Catabolic processes go on in one's own body not in the body of somebody else. Only some cells, for instance cancer cells, show aggression. All other cells destroy their own molecules.

The life and death instinct of Freud is an abstraction. What we encounter in practical life situations are fusions of life and death ins