Death Drive, Repetition & Undeadness

In his words 40

“death drive is almost the opposite. death drive is the dimension of the undead — something which remains alive even after it is dead and it's in a way immortal in its deadness itself.”
25:10 The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (2006) · death drive redefined as undead insistence

“death drive paradoxically i claim is freud's name for immortality”
1:58:11 Why Only an Atheist Can Believe · death drive as undead insistence beyond life and death

“Death drive is Freudian name for immortality. What Freud calls death drive is something that insists as it were beyond life and death. Figures of death drive are like vampires, living dead.”
1:29:55 The Return to Hegel · death drive as immortality

The stories that teach it

the jokes and anecdotes he reaches for when he works in this idea, ranked by how many of its talks they turn up in; each card is one story, with every retelling on its page

anecdote · in 11 of its talks

Niels Bohr's horseshoe

Niels Bohr had a horseshoe on his country-house door; when a scientist friend asked why a scientist would keep a superstitious charm, Bohr answered 'I was told it works even if you don't believe in it', Žižek's model for ideology today.

joke · in 10 of its talks

coffee without cream / coffee without milk

A customer orders coffee without cream; the waiter says they have no cream but can offer coffee without milk. Even though the result is identical, the absent supplement matters, Hegelian negativity in a joke.

example · in 8 of its talks

Tom and Jerry

Cartoons like Tom and Jerry feature characters being run over or cut into pieces, only to reappear instantly in the next scene, demonstrating the same 'undead' logic as games.

example · in 8 of its talks

Starbucks ethical consumerism

Buying a Starbucks cappuccino is sold as supporting Guatemalan organic farmers and saving the planet; the owner appeared like Anthony Giddens calling Starbucks an ersatz place of collective experience. The sin of consumerism and its redemption are packaged together in the same…

anecdote · in 7 of its talks

Obsessional neurosis in psychoanalysis

Žižek recounts being diagnosed as an obsessional neurotic during his own psychoanalysis; he would talk non-stop in sessions to prevent the analyst from asking a difficult question, not to achieve change but to ensure nothing would change.

example · in 7 of its talks

Antigone rewritten, three alternate scenarios

Žižek describes his book rewriting Antigone in three alternate-history versions: (1) Sophocles' original; (2) Antigone wins the argument with Creon but this triggers revolt and ruin; (3) the Chorus executes both Antigone and Creon as traitors establishing Jacobin terror. He us…

Aquinas on Paradise and Hell6 Brassed Off coffee invitation6 Book of Job as first critique of ideology6 Fight Club: beating oneself as first step of liberation5 Zeuxis and Parrhasius5 Hegel on madness and habit5 Kant's infinite judgment / 'I am undead'5 Žižek's father dying, no deathbed reconciliation5 Primo Levi's Selekcja5 Coffee/Beer/Chocolate without [Substance]5

Where it comes up 132

228 moments located in the transcripts, click a timestamp to play from there

Lacanian Theology and Buddhism2012 · 1:27:34

44:59 death drive

… And what I want to say is that just to give you a hint it's crucial what Freud calls death drive is did you notice it if you read Freud carefully it's basically its exact opposite.

45:19 undeadness

… Death drive is think about undead.

9:53 obsessional neurosis

… Because Lacan provides a very precise definition of obsessional neurotic.

+2 more in this talk

Why Todestrieb is a Philosophical Concept2009-03-06 · 1:29:44

1:22:08 death drive

… But I don't think we gain—I mean, it's not that we say anything great if we say capital is death drive or whatever, no? Because it’s just means that it’s a certain self-relating automatic process of *Wiederholungszwang* and so on and so on.

1:06:35 undeadness

… s infinite or indefinite judgment and we don't negate the predicate, we affirm a non-predicate? We don't say "he isn't dead," we say "he is undead." My God, if you know Stephen King and so on, you know that something totally new emerges.

1:22:13 Wiederholungszwang

… ing great if we say capital is death drive or whatever, no? Because it’s just means that it’s a certain self-relating automatic process of *Wiederholungszwang* and so on and so on.

+3 more in this talk

XLII Sigmund Freud Lecture by Slavoj Žižek: Theology, Negativity, and the Death-Drive2015 · 1:49:50

27:12 death drive

… elf-sacrifice and so on, is the very dimension of self-sabotaging, of the pursuit of unhappiness that Freud designated as the domain of the death drive.

33:45 obsessional neurosis

… You know, the classical example here would be the economy of Zwangsneurose, of obsessional neurosis, where let's say you have a certain desire, you are ashamed of it, you want to get rid of it.

31:20 obscene immortality

… This is for Kant the domain of infinity and it's a very mysterious infinity because it's not the noble infinity of a pure spirit, it's an obscene bodily infinity.

+3 more in this talk

Slavoj Žižek Masterclass: Jacques Lacan: A Lateral Introduction. Part 4pub. 2018-11-28 · 2:10:29

1:32:41 death drive

… Death drive is not Nirvana.

1:07:48 undeadness

… When the mask, the dead object, comes alive by way of taking possession of us, its hold of us is that of a living dead, of a monstrous automaton imposing itself on us.

1:28:45 disturbance in the field of force

… illusory material reality; this reality emerges when something goes—okay, to put it almost ironic now in the terms of *Star Wars*, no?—the disturbance in power, how should I put it, no? That up there in Nirvana something must go wrong.

+2 more in this talk

Marx and Lacan: Surplus-Enjoyment, Surplus-Value, Surplus-Knowledge2016-05-24 · 1:55:33

22:14 death drive

… Just a couple of motives to amuse you maybe or to allow you to see in new light the most standard concepts, for example: death drive.

24:50 undeadness

… And this is what Freud calls *Wiederholungszwang*, the compulsion to repeat, this undeadness.

~19:23 aim vs. goal of the drive

people," you know. Even the most crazy speculative dance, it all serves satisfaction of the needs of concrete people and so on and so on. So the point is that—that for Freud—it’s—I hope you will get the point because here now things will start to …