Drive theory (psychoanalysis)

In the universe of Freudian psychoanalysis, drive theory refers to the theory of drives, motivations, or instincts, that have clear objects. Examples include what Freud called Eros, and what is now widley known as Thanatos, the drives toward Life and Death, respectively. In Civilization and Its Discontents, which the prescient Freud wrote, full of the sense of impending disaster in the form of a second European war, Freud wrote "In face of the destructive forces unleashed, now it may be expected that the other of the two 'heavenly forces,' eternal Eros, will put forth his strength so as to maintain himself alongside of his equally immortal adversary" (Freud 1961[1929]:144). The adversary, clearly, is Thanatos.

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