The term was coined by Georg Groddeck and later borrowed by Freud, who divided the id's drives and instincts into two categories: life and death instincts. Life instincts are those that are crucial to pleasurable survival, such as eating and copulation. Death instincts are our unconscious wish to die, as death puts an end to the everyday struggles for happiness and survival. Freud noticed the death instinct in our desire for peace and attempts to escape reality through fiction, media, and substances such as alcohol and drugs. Basically our own unconscious.
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