Thanatos- death drive; drive to return to a state of calm, or an inorganic or dead state.
Freud defined the life and death drives by defining pleasure and unpleasure first. Unpleasure refers to the increase of stimuli. For example, excessive friction on the skin's surface produces a burning sensation or, the bombardment of visual stimuli amidst rush hour traffic produces anxiety. On the opposite end of the spectrum, pleasure is defined as a decrease in stimuli. For example, a calm environment the body enters after having been subjected to a hectic environment. If pleasure increases as stimuli decrease, the ultimate pleasure would be zero stimulus, or death.
I never heard of that theory. At first, I felt like that is a pretty sad concept. I mean, I feel like I am happiest when I am busy doing all the various things I fill my life with and I'm proud to say I fill my life with good things as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteThe more I thought about the Eros and Thanatos theory though, I realized I will be old for a long time (hopefully), and dead for a really long time (definitely) so maybe the theory is not so depressing after all. Also, maybe if I chillax a little, I may enjoy life more than I already do.
Thanks for opening my mind a little wider!