BEYOND THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE - READING A ND REREADING

The concept of the death instinct developed by Freud in Beyond the Ple asure Principle, and since then more ignored than debated, is approach ed by the author from a specific angle. By tracing Freud's quest for t he >>Beyond<< (which he ultimately gave the name of >>death instinct<< ) and spelling out the contradictions and inconsistencies that come to light in the process, she demonstrates that these latter are not grou nded in the concept but in the nature of the subject itself, in other words that the >>Beyond<< is a rhetorical mire-en-scene inscribed into the text. With reference to the subtle meanings of the there/not-ther e game and the interplay between the notions of eros and death instinc t, Lochel shows that the assumption of a death instinct is an inner-th eoretical necessity which Freud did not however have the metalinguisti c resources to handle. The author contends that if there are sexual an d life instincts, there must also be something beyond. Representation needs the death instinct as something representation-less in the same way as writing needs an empty page. The death instinct - by no means a purely conceptual imperative - Is the price that has to be paid for p sychic representation.