Blackwell Reference Online

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Philosophy of mind [Greek eros, love, desire] Freud claimed that there are two classes of ultimate instinct in the id. Our mental world contains eros, which is our life-preserving instinct, and thanatos (from Greek, death), which is our death instinct. Eros, which replaced Freud's earlier notion of libido, is in the tradition of Plato and Spinoza, a never-satisfied desire and effort. Eros inspires us to strive for individual happiness and forms our wishes to unite with others. It drives living organisms to develop. Thanatos drives us toward a return to the inorganic. According to Freud, these two forces fight each other, and their conflict and interaction determine the development of individual life and culture. This pair of notions, eros and thanatos, can be traced to the cosmology of Empedocles.“The other set of instincts would be those which are better known to us in analysis – the libidinal, sexual or life instincts, which are best comprised under the name of Eros; their purpose would be to form living substance into ever greater unities, so that life may be prolonged and brought to higher development.”Freud, Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 18 ... log in or subscribe to read full text