The death instinct: Some thoughts on suicide, violence and God

Is there something within us that drives us toward death? This theory was proposed by Sabina Spielman and made popular by Sigmund Freud. It’s often interchangeably called the death drive or death instinct and it works in direct opposition to the life instinct or that which drives us to want to live.

The death instinct theory has always made a lot of sense to me. When things are going well, do we not have a tendency to love life and do we not have an insatiable desire to live life to the fullest. Conversely, when things aren’t going so well we may also have a tendency to feel hatred towards life. In such a state, we may have a tendency toward depression, aggression, violence and/or suicide.

To varying degrees we may also experience this as a need for dark when things are too light, good, pretty, etc… and, flipping the coin, a need for light when things are too dark, dreary and depressing.

Years ago I remember hearing some wise words from news anchor Hugh Downs that always rang true to me. After admitting to his own struggles with depression, he made the assertion that there is no depression without also contemplating suicide. No matter how much we may not want to admit it, even to ourselves, those thoughts do go hand in hand, in my opinion. Whether or not we take the steps to actually put…