The Death Wish in Daily Life

Theoretically Freud's formulation of the death instinct is unassailable. No doubt there is that life, our life, cosmic life runs in opposites which though seemingly opposites are nevertheless part and parcel of each other; as the convex fits the concave. There could be no appreciation of heat unless there was cold; there could be no day unless there was night and there could be no good unless there was evil. Life and death, are at once each others' opposites and complements as well. It follows that if we accept the existence of a life instinct we must equally accept the existence of a death instinct. And we must further agree with Freud that the animal dies not because of the effect of external and traumatic factors but essentially because of inner disintegration that is inherent in the very nature of life. Where there is anabolism there must be catabolism or life could not go on. Life becomes extinguished because it is unable to take care of its own waste products.

In daily relations, the average individual finds himself wholly unable to accept the concept of a death instinct, for in the unconscious we never die and consciously we always wish to live. He may accept the concept of the death idea in a limited way acknowledging that as we grow older the urge to live grows less and life may even become a burden. Such a formulation, however, does not mean the acceptance of the concept of the death instinct as a universal phenomenon. The urge to live is accepted by the healthy individual as something that is not to be questioned and, it is difficult for such individual in full spirit of life to believe that he, who is so anxious to live, actually has some forces within him that unconsciously and relentlessly drive him to the opposite, that of returning to the primordial state. But psychoanalysis has already made us acquainted with a number of things that on the surface are logically unacceptable, e.g., the presence of unconscious as opposed to the conscious; yet there is