This article develops a translation-conceptual resumption of the differences between the instinct to master and aspects of the death drive, based on Sigmund Freud and teachings by Jacques Lacan. Since Bemächtigungstrieb, term used by Freud, was translated both as “pulsão de dominação” and “pulsão de apoderamento” in Portuguese, the texts argues that the latter translation allows us to conceptualize it as originally intended, as a force to master the world, operationalized by the muscular apparatus. Thus, we point out its participatory action in the constitutive organization of the subject, underlining its specificity in the third time of the drive, called here passivation. This resumption reveals the distinction between the death drive and the idea of mastery, exploring the nature of taking possession, reopening the epistemological field.
Keywords
Mastery; metapsychology; drive; subject