Freud’s Death Instinct Applied to Hitler’s Germany

Dear Editor,

Your Spring 2017 Clio’s Psyche “Freud’s Death Drive, Suicide, and Suicidal Terrorism” Symposium discussion with Inna Rozentsvit on Freud’s death instinct prompted me to reread “Cell Suicide in Health and Disease” (Richard C. Duke, et al., Scientific American 275, 80-87), especially regarding triggers for cell suicide. Cell suicide occurs when cells cease to get messages from others that they are needed, or when the cell undergoes a disease process that could make it dangerous to the health of the surrounding tissues. The parallel to attachment theory (and the need to feel that we are a contributing part of a community) was and is striking to me. In this perspective, suicide becomes one form of “altruistic” behavior where a cell will sacrifice itself for the benefit of its (tissue) group. This approach would explain why shunning (extreme social isolation) can be deadly—the messages that the shunned individual is a member of the group are cut off.

It is understandable that Freud came up with the death instinct at the time he did since he was witnessing the “drivenness” of a tremendous social pathology: the whole period before WWI and including the two wars was a long and ultimately failed game of poison containment. Hitler and his followers’ overt allegations of superiority was a desperate manic defense against unconscious convictions of worthlessness and possibly toxicity, which were acted out in suicidal attacks on superior adversaries.

Sincerely yours,

Dorothea Leicher

Page 367