death instinct (redirected from death instincts)

instinct /in·stinct/ (in´stinkt) a complex of unlearned responses characteristic of a species.instinc´tive

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death instinct  in psychoanalysis, the latent instinctive impulse toward dissolution and death.

herd instinct  the instinct or urge to be one of a group and to conform to its standards of conduct and opinion.

life instinct  in psychoanalysis, all of the constructive tendencies of the organism aimed at maintenance and perpetuation of the individual and species.

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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. Also called Thanatos.

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death instinct,

instinctive behavior that tends to be self-destructive.