Thanatos, or the death instinct, is an extension of the psychoanalytic framework of Sigmund Freud, wherein he proposed the existence of an unconscious drive to destroy, get aggressive, or revert to an inanimate condition. While Eros (the life instinct) focuses on survival and creativity, Freud viewed Thanatos as the drive toward aggression, greater self-harm or self-destructive behavior. Although modern empirical psychology does not constitute the notion of the death instinct, it sets the basis for trauma, aggression, and repetition compulsion. More recent approaches focus on the metaphorical interpretations of the death instinct as an expression of excessive risk-taking, destructive behavior, or psychological defenses of collapse. Even if contested, the death instinct valued early psychoanalytic theory of human motivation and conflict.
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