The Political Permanence of the Death Drive. Modern Thought and Psychoanalysis

Based on the double direction of the death drive, within the organism (it strives to achieve an inertial state) and outside of it (as a violent tendency towards other organisms), this article establishes a connection between psychoanalytic theory and modern political thought. Through this relationship the aim is to show that: (1) death -in the form of a dynamical principle- is revealed as a field of implementation of policy and (2) how modern thinking set this base to develop its political theory. Thus, the death drive appears in its political dimension as an external activity (war between nations) and, at the same time, as an internal activity (the possibility of self-annihilation of the body politic), as well as constituting a fundamental moment in order to reveal its importance in political activity.

Death drive, modern politics, modern philosophy, psychoanalysis.