death instinct

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

It was Freud who posited the Nirvana principle as an innate psychic drive or death instinct that aims to end life’s inevitable tension.

From The Guardian • Jan. 25, 2017

It’s because of the death instinct that a perfectly nice person dates a string of losers: you tell yourself that you want to move forward, but actually, on some level, you want to go back.

From The New Yorker • May 11, 2015

The energy of the life instincts are called libido and energy of the death instinct is called destrudo.

From Time Magazine Archive

Later, Freud formulated his famed "death instinct," into which suicide fitted neatly as death's triumph over the life instinct.

From Time Magazine Archive

Perhaps the best known of Freud's theories about death is the concept of a death instinct, which he formulated in 1920.

From Time Magazine Archive