Beyond The Pleasure Principle
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: rev ed.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Yellowed
In one of the most daring and consequential revisions in the history of psychoanalytic thought, Sigmund Freud's Beyond the Pleasure Principle challenges his own foundational premise that human behaviour is governed by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Published originally in 1920, this landmark text introduces the concept of the death drive — Thanatos — positing that alongside the life instinct (Eros) exists a compulsion toward dissolution, repetition, and self-destruction, drawing on Freud's clinical observations of trauma, war neuroses, and the compulsive repetition of painful experiences. Translated and newly edited by the eminent James Strachey as part of the prestigious International Psycho-Analytical Library, this edition presents Freud's argument with clarity and scholarly rigour. The work stands as a pivotal turning point in Freudian theory, reshaping the intellectual landscape of psychology, philosophy, and literary theory throughout the twentieth century. Its influence resonates across disciplines — from existentialist philosophy to contemporary trauma studies — leaving the reader to confront a profoundly unsettling question: is the human psyche ultimately driven not by the desire to live, but by an unconscious yearning to return to nothingness?
Author: Sigmund Freud
Format: Hardback
Published: 1961, The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis
Genre: Psychology
Edition: rev ed.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Yellowed
In one of the most daring and consequential revisions in the history of psychoanalytic thought, Sigmund Freud's Beyond the Pleasure Principle challenges his own foundational premise that human behaviour is governed by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Published originally in 1920, this landmark text introduces the concept of the death drive — Thanatos — positing that alongside the life instinct (Eros) exists a compulsion toward dissolution, repetition, and self-destruction, drawing on Freud's clinical observations of trauma, war neuroses, and the compulsive repetition of painful experiences. Translated and newly edited by the eminent James Strachey as part of the prestigious International Psycho-Analytical Library, this edition presents Freud's argument with clarity and scholarly rigour. The work stands as a pivotal turning point in Freudian theory, reshaping the intellectual landscape of psychology, philosophy, and literary theory throughout the twentieth century. Its influence resonates across disciplines — from existentialist philosophy to contemporary trauma studies — leaving the reader to confront a profoundly unsettling question: is the human psyche ultimately driven not by the desire to live, but by an unconscious yearning to return to nothingness?