Life instinct

In Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis, the life instinct or eros is one of the two primary instincts that determine human behavior alongside the death instinct .

The psychic energy of eros is known as libido .

The instinct for life stands for self and species preservation , for the survival and reproduction of the individual. This instinct is partly identical to Ludwig Feuerbach's instinct for happiness , but differs from it insofar as in Feuerbach z. For example, suicide was explained with the instinct for bliss, but Freud explained it with the death instinct.

The term eros includes everything that aims to gain pleasure (e.g. physical contact, eating, movement, joy) and is therefore an umbrella term for philosophical eros .

In the modern sciences, these life instincts are in principle summarized under the term need , with the difference that in the concept of need the focus is on the desire - in contrast to the desire satisfying drive . Thus, according to this understanding of the term, the gain in pleasure arises when a need is satisfied.