death instinct
noun
suicidal tendency or inclination; predisposition to self-destruction.
Psychoanalysis.
an impulse to withdraw or destroy, working in opposition to forces urging survival and creation (life instinct).
Origin of death instinct
First recorded in 1915–20
Words nearby death instinct
death duty,
death futures,
death grant,
death house,
death in venice,
death instinct,
death knell,
death mask,
death metal,
death of,
death of a salesman
Medical definitions for death instinct
death instinct
n.
A primitive impulse for destruction, decay, and death, manifested by a turning away from pleasure, postulated by Sigmund Freud as coexisting with and opposing the life instinct.
Thanatos