ABSTRACT. The key contribution of this paper is to articulate and give expression to aspects of Freud’s death instinct, Freud’s dualistic model of life and death drives, the ethical significance of the death drive, the death drive as the source of decay and finitude, and the death drive as the impulse of destruction and aggression. We will consider some of the previous writings on Freud’s treatment of death, Freud’s model of mental functioning, the role of the death drive in regulating the psyche, the ethical dimension of the death drive, and the role of the death drive. pp. 228–233

Keywords: Freud, death drive, psyche, finitude, aggression