Freud’s Kehre in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), with its introduction of the death drive and the concept of repetition compulsion, profoundly influenced the evolution of psychoanalysis. The implications of this turn sparked significant developments in the work of Jacques Lacan, Melanie Klein, and André Green, each of whom reinterpreted and expanded Freud’s ideas to address new dimensions of the psyche. Let’s explore how these thinkers engaged with Freud’s turn:
1. Jacques Lacan: The Death Drive as the Core of Desire
Lacan’s Engagement with the Death Drive
• Lacan integrated Freud’s death drive into his structural and linguistic psychoanalysis, reframing it in terms of desire, language, and the symbolic order:
• For Lacan, the death drive represents a paradoxical force that pushes beyond the pleasure principle toward the jouissance (a painful, excessive form of pleasure) of repeating traumatic experiences.
• The death drive is tied to the Real—the aspect of the psyche that resists symbolic representation and disrupts the subject’s sense of coherence.
Repetition Compulsion in Lacan
• Lacan reinterpreted Freud’s repetition compulsion as a key mechanism in subject formation:
• It reflects the subject’s futile attempt to return to a state of wholeness lost with entry into the symbolic order (language and culture).
• The death drive is the force behind this repetition, perpetually destabilizing the subject’s desire.
Key Concepts Influenced by Freud’s Turn
• The Real: Lacan connected the death drive to the traumatic core of existence that cannot be symbolized, aligning it with the Real.
• Jouissance: The death drive is closely linked to the pursuit of excessive pleasure that transgresses the limits imposed by the pleasure principle.
Impact
• Lacan’s interpretation transformed Freud’s speculative idea of the death drive into a cornerstone of his theory, situating it at the heart of subjectivity and desire. His work expanded the implications of Freud’s turn into the realms of linguistics, culture, and the symbolic.
2. Melanie Klein: The Death Drive in Object Relations
Klein’s Development of Freud’s Ideas
• Klein fully embraced Freud’s death drive, embedding it into her object relations theory:
• She argued that the death drive manifests as innate aggression in early infancy, directed toward objects (external and internal).
• This aggression generates anxiety, which the infant manages through defense mechanisms such as splitting, projection, and introjection.
The Paradox of Life and Death Drives
• Klein saw the interplay between life (Eros) and death (Thanatos) drives as central to psychic development:
• The paranoid-schizoid position reflects the dominance of the death drive and the fear of annihilation.
• The depressive position involves the integration of life and death drives, enabling the infant to reconcile aggression and love toward the same object.
Key Concepts Influenced by Freud’s Turn
• Primitive Destructiveness: Klein viewed the death drive as the origin of destructive impulses that shape the infant’s earliest relationships.
• Reparation: The struggle between life and death drives leads to a desire to repair damaged objects, fostering emotional growth.
Impact
• Klein’s work elaborated Freud’s death drive into a detailed framework for understanding the early development of the psyche, emphasizing how the death drive shapes relationships and psychic defenses.
3. André Green: The Death Drive and the Negative
Green’s Engagement with the Death Drive
• André Green extended Freud’s ideas by focusing on the negative dimensions of the psyche, which he called the work of the negative:
• For Green, the death drive is not simply a force of destruction but a transformative process that erases, negates, and reorganizes psychic structures.
• He was particularly interested in the role of absence, emptiness, and non-representation in psychic life.
The Negative and Psychic Structures
• Green identified the negative effects of the death drive in phenomena such as:
• Psychic deadness: A state where the psyche becomes numb or disengaged, reflecting the death drive’s pull toward stasis.
• The blank: An absence in the psyche where meaning collapses, leaving a void that resists symbolization.
Key Concepts Influenced by Freud’s Turn
• The Work of the Negative: Green saw the death drive as part of a broader dynamic of psychic negation, central to processes such as mourning and melancholia.
• Borderline States: He explored how the death drive manifests in borderline patients, where the psyche oscillates between life and death forces, leading to fragmentation.
Impact
• Green’s focus on the negative provided a nuanced understanding of the death drive, moving beyond Freud’s original framework to address the absence, void, and disruptions that shape psychic life.
Comparison of Their Contributions
Thinker Focus Interpretation of Freud’s Turn Key Contribution
Jacques Lacan Desire, Language, and the Real The death drive as the force behind repetition and jouissance, tied to the trauma of the Real and symbolic disruptions. Integrated the death drive into structural and cultural theory.
Melanie Klein Object Relations and Early Development The death drive as innate aggression shaping early relationships, balanced by reparation and life drives. Elaborated on the death drive’s role in early psychic formation.
André Green The Negative and Psychic Deadness The death drive as a process of negation, erasure, and emptiness, manifesting in psychic deadness and borderline states. Focused on the absence and void created by the death drive.
Conclusion
Freud’s Kehre in Beyond the Pleasure Principle reshaped psychoanalysis, introducing speculative and unresolved concepts that profoundly influenced later thinkers. Lacan, Klein, and Green each reinterpreted the death drive in ways that expanded its theoretical reach:
• Lacan explored its connection to desire and symbolic disruption.
• Klein integrated it into early object relations and the dynamics of love and aggression.
• Green focused on negativity, absence, and psychic deadness, emphasizing the transformative and disruptive dimensions of the death drive.
Each thinker transformed Freud’s speculative concept into frameworks that addressed new dimensions of human experience, underscoring the lasting impact of Freud’s turn. Would you like to dive deeper into one of these interpretations?
