Some Guidelines - Please Read Before Posting

The objective of this blog is to act as a resource of information about psychoanalysis that we can all contribute to and share.

Because blogs are publicly accessible we must bear in mind that we have a responsibility for the content of the site and therefore we would like to present some guidelines for how this blog should be used.

1) We believe that unpublished clinical material should not be included in any posts as it breaches patient confidentiality. This is without doubt one of the most precious aspects of the practice of psychoanalysis and we should reflect that on this site.

2) We believe that any review posted for one of our evening reading group sessions should be first checked with the speaker to ensure that they are happy to be associated with it. This is done out of respect for our speakers and the subjects they wish to discuss.

3) We believe that any posts containing personal experience should be appropriate and relevant. Again, blogs are publicly accessible and our aim is not to cause offence or bore our readers!

Like all guidelines these aim at providing us with a sound structure to work within, and should ensure that the site contributes to our greater understanding of Freud and all those good people that have come after...

Eros - Nicola Abel-Hirsch - 27/07/04

Attending:
Annie, David, Kieran, Paul, and Tooney

Nicola had asked us to read Freud's Beyond The Pleasure Principle...
Very briefly summarised this concerned Freud's interest in the Death Instinct he saw as in opposition to the Life Instinct (Eros). Freud maintained that the compulsion to repeat particular unpleasurable behaviours was not necessarily a sign that the psyche was trying to master a particular problem but could be the manifestation of an over-riding destructive force.
Eros, the Life Instinct, can be seen as an Organising Principle present in Nature, in conflict with Thanatos a destructive principle. The Death Instinct means an 'urge' to return to inanimate matter present in the human psyche as a reflection of a universal principle.
Freud believed that we should be more surprised by the occurrence of death as there was bioligical evidence of early living organisms that did not die but went on 'reproducing'. Why does Death exist?
Psychoanalysts present clinical evidence for the Death Instinct in young children in such forms as Primitve Envy. This has been explored by analysts such as Betty Joseph and Hanna Segal.

Further Reading:
Hanna Segal : The Significance of the Death Instinct in Clinical Practice from Dream, Phantasy and Art.

Notes:
Eros was the son of Aphrodite. Eros was the god of love. In particular erotic, romantic, love.
Thanatos was the Greek God of Death.