Freud’s second drive theory and rilke’s poetic lament

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection on Freud's second drive theory, which presents the concepts of life drive and death drive as psychic forces that operate beyond the pleasure principle. The Freudian construction is interconnected with verses from the Duin Elegies, by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, in which death appears as a central element, in the plots of lamentation, loneliness and the encounter with original Pain. The selected verses serve to illustrate the instinctual manifestations proposed by Freud, especially the compulsion to repeat. Thus, Freud develops the hypothesis that the psychic apparatus seeks to maintain excitation at low levels, but that it is also influenced by a principle that he calls "Nirvana", associated with the death drive. The turn towards the second drive theory is anchored in the development of the concept of narcissism, the resumption of the principle of constancy and the concept of repetition compulsion which differs from the logic of the pleasure principle.