death instinct

noun

: an innate and unconscious tendency toward self-destruction postulated in psychoanalytic theory to explain aggressive and destructive behavior not satisfactorily explained by the pleasure principle

called also Thanatos

compare eros sense 2

Examples of death instinct in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This sympathy wasn’t simply a fascination with human evil—with a death instinct—but an attraction to a deeper freedom, a more intense form of life than parliaments and pamphleteering offered. —George Packer, The Atlantic, 5 Nov. 2024

We’ve been told over and over again that there’s a part of her that flirts with the death instinct in a pretty big way. —Jackie Strause, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 May 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1921, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

death instinct

noun

: an innate and unconscious tendency toward self-destruction postulated in psychoanalytic theory to explain aggressive and destructive behavior not satisfactorily explained by the pleasure principle

called also Thanatos

compare eros